New York Airport: Final Moments

Swiss Air Flight 111: 2 September 1998

Services, song memorials to crash victims

PEGGY'S COVE - The moving melody of Amazing Grace sounded early yesterday morning beneath the quaint lighthouse that has become a beacon for drowned Swissair Flight 111.

At least four formal memorials for the 229 crash victims were held in Halifax and along the South Shore, with scores of other local church services turning their thoughts to the New York-to-Geneva-bound jetliner lost 10 kilometres offshore.

But it was in Peggy's Cove, the closest landfall to the crash site, where once again the impromptu memorials of the families provided the most moving testimonial.

A family of four - one of the very first of the day to be ushered down the sloping granite face of the tiny peninsula - broke into four-part harmony singing a hymn.

"It was beautiful," said Canadian Forces chaplain John O'Donnell of CFB Halifax, who was shepherding the group.

"(But after) four, five verses I start to think: `Oh my goodness, we're taking a lot of time here because there's lots of families waiting.'

"I looked up and everyone - all the firemen, all the police, all the other families - were just sort of transfixed on this family down there singing away. They finished that hymn and broke into Amazing Grace. It blew me away."

Up the hill in the tiny Anglican Church that serves this village, some 25 area parishioners attended the regular Sunday service held by Rev. Richard Walsh. "This has been a horrible week," Walsh said bluntly to open his sermon.

Walsh then praised the people of the South Shore for their warmth and generosity.

"This is Nova Scotia, it's what we do," he said.

As for those on Flight 111, "Those people became spiritually part of our community. We won't forget them."

The African Baptist Association of Halifax later belted out gospel music on the shore of St. Margaret's Bay.

In Chester, a private church memorial was held for families of crash victims yesterday afternoon. Public memorials were held last night at a Roman Catholic church and a synagogue in Halifax.

A non-denominational service will be held Wednesday at a school in Indian Harbour, next to Peggy's Cove.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his wife plan to attend.

Daily News, Halifax, N.S. - 5 September 1998
Further information about SwissAir Flight 111 found on website of:
The Daily News

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