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Show D6_ The SaltLake TribuneNATION Sunday, September 10, 1995 Trauma U of USAir Flight 427 Refuses to Die Best Aviation Minds Still Don’t Know What Caused Crash t- By Claudia Coates THE ASSOCIATED PRESS “TL explained the confusion that really there were so many different groups up there, and nobody at the beginning really knew what they were doing and they were learning along the way, and the tremendous strain of seeing things that people shouldn't really have to see,” he says. PITTSBURGH — The crash of USAir Flight 427 into a wooded hillside on Sept. 8, 1994, did more than extinguish 132 lives and de: stroya plane. It broke the hearts of hundreds ofpeople left behind. Forvictims’ families and crashsite workers, peace of mind and PersonalIssues: Someare using the crash as an inspiration. A 200-memberalliance of relatives of Flight 427 passengers is trying to change the wayairlines deai with disasters. John Kretz, the group’s executive director, complained to Transporation Secretary Federico Pena that USAir mishandled personal issues sur- rounding the crash. The group says that manyrela- tives had to wait for hours before receiving confirmation — sometimes delivered rudely — that their loved one was aboard the plane; that victims’ rings, watch- es, wallets and other belongings sometimes were discarded; and that remains were buried in a mass plot without the families’ consent “We've gotten the attention of the secretary of transportation, and I'd say that's pretty good,” says Kretz, whose wife was killed in the crash. USAirsays notification was delayed in some cases because it took the airline a long time to compile an accurate list of victims; that many belongings were in too poor condition to return to relatives; and thatairline officials did not reveal the extent of unidentified remains buried because they thought it would upset relatives. E=mce? Is Formula for Riches ‘THE ASSOCIATEDPRESS NEW YORK — Albert EinStein's earliest manuscript on the theory ofrelativity, which made history when it sold for $1.2 million in 1987, is being auctioned again. Sotheby’s said Wednesday thatit expects it will sell for $4 milion to $6 million at the Dec. 1i sale. The 72-page paper is a lengthy review of Einstein’s special theory of relativity, demonstrating that time is not absolute and mass and energy are equivalent. The equation E=mc? — energy equals mass times the speed oflight squared — appears in several different forms. The handwritten manuscript probably was completed in 1912, but publication was put off by World War I. Einstein riddled the text with numerous corrections, additions and deletions, as well as diagrams and formulas. even sanity were shattered. A womanstill avoids her family room, where she and her husband, killed in the crash, once * lounged contentedly with ATTENTION POSTMENOPAUSAL WOMEN ‘ ), Winter is Coming. . . their two children. A minister who prayed with Coroners’ helpersat the crash site still is trying to recover from depression that led him to work longer and longerhours to block out memoriesof death. And countless members of the alge adanerbiongeis ed eat f is simply the quietest the market today. And sree Arve ratingmeans it'l Increase Increasing your costof ing. cae us today aboutthe new G20 naturel gas furnace. financing avilable. FOR A FREE TIMATE community where the plane crashed nowlook up when plane flies lower than usual, many of them mindful that a year after the disaster, the country’s best aviation mindsstill are unable to say N * a # AS A PARTICIPANT YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE PAP SMEARS, MAMMOGRAM, AND A COMPREHENSIVE MEDICAL ASSESSMENT ATNO COST TO YOU. FINANCIAL COMPEN. SATIONAVAILABLE TO QUALIFIED PATIENTS CALL NOW o«=" what caused it “Theywill listen and say, “How close is that?’ " says Lauren Hur- WORRY a? MEMBER, ROCKY MOUNTAIN GAS ASSOCIATION ray of Aliquippa ‘| Stil Cry’: When Joanne Shortley wakes up in the morning, ene foot occasionally still wanders to the otherside of the bed, searching for her husband, Ste- CLINICAL RESEARCH FOR AN EXPERIMENTAL ESTRCGEN/PROGESTIN HORMONE REPLAC “MENT THERAPY PATCH IS BEING CG. i ‘TED THROUGH FOOTHILL FAMILY CLINIC PRE-SEASON NATURAL GAS _FURNACE SALE Gas HEATING & AIR CONDITIONING TO SEE IF YOU QUALIFY na? (801) 943-7151 wile Serving The Salt Lake Area For 27 Years 7 484-4402 LEAVE ven. She then realizes anew that she is alone. Steven Shortley, her husband of two decades, was on his way hometo Pittsburgh from business in Chicago when Flight 427 crashed,killing everyone aboard. ‘T still cry — still miss him terribly — butit’s not that gutwrenching cry,’ Mrs. Shortley says. In the past year, she has gone from wife and mother to widow and single parent. “I zip up and button my own dresses, scratch my own back, program my own VCRs, hammer my own nails,” she says. “If my husband walked through that door, he’d say, ‘Whatthe hell happened to you?’ He’d probably admire me.” She agonized over becoming one of the first plaintiffs to settle a lawsuit against USAir and Boeing Co., the maker of the 737 that plummeted inexplicably from the sky. “I did not want to prolongthis. I did not want to become a wealthy person because my husband died,” she says. Some things sharpen the pain, such as seeing happy couples or Shortley’s parents. She cannot abide the family room and only now can sit in “his” seat on the sun porch Newtraditions honor his memory. His wedding ring, found amid the wreckage, hangs on a chain around herneck. That, too, is a painful reminder of his cruel death; the impact of the crash flattened the ring into anoval. She keeps an unwashed towel — thelast towel her husband used —— on a bathroom rack A Pastor's Struggle: Unlike many counselorsat the Flight 427 erash site, the Rev. Don Hurray was not protected from the horror of seeing 132 shattered bodies. By witnessing the worst, just as the workers did, his credibilityincreased. But he paida highprice. “I thought I was strong and could handle everything, but I eouldn’t,” says Hurray, pastor of the Ohio United Presbyterian Church in Aliquippa. He would have liked to back out. Instead, he stayed for a week. “The workers were just going erazy,” Hurray says. “I could see why they wanted me to be up there. Without God, you can see there's no hope, and we desperately need that hope.” He prayed with searchers or stood among them,offering silent prayers. In the monthsafterward, he began to recognize whata weight the ordeal had placed on his shoulders. In February, depression struck. His main symptom wasan- ger, at everything and nothing. “He withdrewfrom our family. He wouldn’t talk about anything, which is not like him. He worked all the time. He just spent the time working. He wasjust always at the church, just running, doing something day and night so he wouldn't have to think,”says his wife, Lauren. Whenshe linked his troubles to the crash, she was surprised when he immediately agreed. “Everything was just, ‘What's the use?’ — just that horrible black feeling,” Hurray says. “Ev- erything that was important be- Utah is a big state. Cities and towns root and grow. America’s leading Built by people spread far and wide, who came from tuckedinto the around the world to landscape wherever take part in Utah, As the statehood health care company, centennial approaches, has come to Utah. we join Utah in We, too, hope looking back... came unimportant — your car, our work. . So you don’t feel like doing anything.” He underwent counseling, and turned a corner whenthe Kiwanis Club invited him to speak in Febfuary., “4 they could take Now, Columbia, 4 CoOLUMBIA/HCA Health System to put down roots but we're also looking and growwith you. ahead. |
