Kathleen, whose cousin Peter was one of the first firefighters on the scene, was regarded as an exemplary mother, always available and eager to help with neighborhood or community events like fund-raisers for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn where she worked. Rodriguez couldn't get there fast enough, "He would have pushed that plane if he had to," says his older brother Felipe.Rodriguez never made it home. "Cuco Valoy, Norma's father and the children's grandfather, has his own frustrations.
"He still acted like a little guy," she says Rodriguez's niece, Gizelle Cabrar, 18. "In Washington Heights, a Dominican neighborhood in New York City, Rodriguez's older brother Felipe was among a crowd of mourners gathered at a community center. Rodriguez was the youngest of seven siblings, and his sense of humor and appetite for fun made him everybody's pet. He is now tormented by his resolve to get the family off on their vacation. When I called to tell them what happened, they simply didn't believe what I was saying. Elias recalls that when they were younger, Ruben had an ever-expanding menagerie of pets, including a pet dove that he kept trying to set free in a park near their house. 15 years ago today, American Airlines Flight 587 (N14053) was a scheduled passenger flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City to Las Américas International Airport, Dominican Republic. The job is considered one of the most dangerous in the world, even by Navy standards. "My baby, Johnny, didn't want to go," says Guzman through tears. Everyone aboard Flight 587, along with 5 people on the ground were killed. '"Guzman, a taxi driver, can't stop thinking about what might have been if his wife Norma, 44, and his three children had not boarded American Airlines Flight 587. Any break in the precise choreography that governs the flight deck of the 75-plane air wing can be disastrous. If he was at your side, for sure you will be smiling or laughing because he was always making jokes." Post was not sent - check your email addresses! The fighter jets that opened the air war on Afghanistan in early October launched off its deck.Just before Rodriguez disembarked from the ship in Norfolk, Va., a local television reporter asked him how it felt to be going home. We've received your submission.Mourners came together Monday to remember the 265 lives lost when American Airlines Flight 587 crashed into a Queens neighborhood in 2001.The New York-to-Dominican Republic flight had barely taken off from JFK Airport when one of its tail fins snapped, sending the Airbus A300 plummeting into the Rockaway Park section of Queens.All 260 passengers and crew died, along with five people on the ground.Father Eric Cruz of St. John Chrysostom Catholic Parish gave the invocation during the ceremony at Flight 587 Memorial Park on Beach 116th Street.A brief moment of silence that followed was interrupted by a plane passing overhead as it took off from JFK.Victims’ relatives Rafael Frias, Karen Taverez and Freddy Rodriguez read aloud the names of the dead.“Thank you everyone for being here to remember those we lost, those we love, and those we still love in our hearts,” Mayor de Blasio told the roughly 150 attendees.“We’re all in a way unable to imagine that it’s been fully 17 years.
N14053, the aircraft involved in the accident. Rodriguez often worked in the pitch dark amid the chopper blades, low flying jets and forceful exhaust streams.
Kathleen's mother, Anne, and her six brothers and sisters (and spouses) live nearby on the Rockaway Peninsula making it easy to meet on the beach as they do annually for a fourth of July party.Then on Nov. 12, Kathleen, 48, and her 24-year-old son Christopher suddenly disappeared from this picture. "It is so frustrating because to me it is a farewell that never came," say Valoy, a noted salsa and merengue singer from the Dominican Republic. Rodriguez's return home had been delayed by the war, and when he called his wife and sons from the ship, Miguel Angel didn't want to speak to him.
Thanks for contacting us. In San Luis, three-year-old Miguel Angel was upset with his mother. Flight 587 was to be Candida Acosta's first trip to the Dominican in two years. He'd also packed ten undeveloped rolls of film, mostly shots of his expedition on the Enterprise to show his sons where he'd been during his absence.
The call came just minutes before the child boarded a doomed flight bound for the Guzman family's homeland of the Dominican Republic. Now, if you were in the city, you could look across, and see Rockaway burning down. We could look across Jamaica Bay, and look at the World Trade Centers.
Their home was completely destroyed in the fire caused by the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. "There was to be a party waiting for Norma in the Dominican Republic," says Guzman. The plane crashed in the Belle Harbor neighborhood of Queens, at the intersection of Newport Avenue and Beach 131st Street. But she never came. Rodriguez's brother Elias adds "He was like somebody flying all the time. The ship was abruptly sent to the Arabian Sea near Afghanistan, becoming the first U.S. aircraft carrier deployed as part of the war on terror. Would you like to receive desktop browser notifications about breaking news and other major stories?