Jan. 29 was shaping up to be an ordinary Wednesday at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Arlington.
Father Frederick H. Edlefsen, pastor, wrapped up a parish finance council meeting at 8:45 p.m.; watched a TV show with Father Steven Walker, U.S. Navy chaplain in residence; and was about to turn in for the night when he checked his phone.
The screen screamed news about the collision of American Airlines Flight 5342 and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River by Reagan National Airport. The flight had departed from Wichita, Kan., and was carrying four crew members and 60 passengers, many of whom were returning from a national figure skating development camp in Wichita. The helicopter carried three Army soldiers and was on a training flight along the Potomac River.
Parish volunteer Joe Mazel texted Father Edlefsen about the crash. Mazel’s son Jimmy had been watching planes land at Gravelly Point near the airport, when around 9 p.m., he witnessed the collision.
“He described what he saw as initially fireworks, and then that descended down to the river,” Mazel said. “He said that all the airplanes were landing from the south to the north that night, and you could see them all lined up. But then all of the sudden, he said they started diverting off, going around.” Five minutes later, Jimmy saw the firetrucks and emergency rescue vehicles arriving along both sides of the river.
Upon reading the text, Father Edlefsen realized, “I need to be there.” He asked Mazel to accompany him to the airport. “I figured he would know the right things to say and how to navigate security,” Father Edlefsen said. “He was my guardian angel in many ways.”
Mazel was no stranger to mass casualty incidents. With a background in emergency services, law enforcement and a U.S. Army combat tour in Iraq, he had witnessed the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack in New York City.
As Mazel and Father Edlefsen raced to the airport, they found the exit ramp to the airport blocked by police. They pulled over to speak to the police. “I’d like to be there, be present to the grieving families,” Father Edlefsen told one officer. The officer offered them a police escort to the terminal.
Just as they were about to leave, Father Edlefsen noticed more cars pulling up. It was the families.
Police accompanied Father Edlefsen and Mazel to Terminal 2. “They escorted us into the American Airlines Admirals Club,” Father Edlefsen said. “The minute you walked in there, you could see and feel the intensity of the grief.”
Father Edlefsen said many families were gathered, as well as skating coaches and friends. A rumor had been circulating that there were several survivors.
“I think in the back of people’s minds, they’re holding out hope that, ‘My loved one is one of those survivors.’ ” Father Edlefsen said. “They all know chances are, maybe not. But on the other hand, there’s always that little glimmer of hope.”
Father Edlefsen ministered to Andy Beyer, a parishioner of Corpus Christi Church in Aldie. Mazel saw Beyer’s son, Kallen, asleep in a corner.
“He was dressed in his pajamas with a blanket over (him) and sleeping on some chairs,” Mazel said. “You look at the 6-year-old in the corner, realizing that when he wakes up, his world’s going to be different.”
The families’ anguish only intensified when an official from the Washington homicide department arrived at 1:30 a.m.
“He said that there are no survivors,” Father Edlefsen remembered. The official reported that it might take a couple of weeks before the victims’ remains could be fully recovered and identified, Father Edlefsen said: “At that moment, it hit the room.”
Beyer had lost his 12-year-old daughter, Brielle, and wife, Justyna, in the crash.
“It was traumatic to see people go through that,” Mazel said. “One woman had four family members on that flight.”
As the families, and even personnel who were there to help, tried to process the devastating news, Father Edlefsen walked around the room to be present and offered a listening ear or a prayer to those who reached out to him.
“Grief, as it’s being expressed and experienced, is a profoundly intimate situation,” he said. Father Edlefsen said some family members asked questions such as, “How did God allow this to happen?”
Father Edlefsen said in moments like these, “You’re listening with the ear of the heart … When people vocalize questions at a moment when the grief hits, they’re not looking for a reply.” For some, Father Edlefsen offered a brief prayer or asked them to describe their loved one. To others, he gave a blessing.
With each encounter, he silently prayed to the Holy Spirit “to give me the gift of counsel,” and “the right thing to say at the right time.”
Beyer offered a tribute to his wife and daughter on Facebook Jan. 30. “I’m still in shock, but I lost my soulmate and my princess last night,” he wrote. “They were truly beautiful people inside and out … I really lived my life for them, I loved them more than anything, and I’m going to miss them so much.”
A GoFundMe page was created Feb. 1 by family friends to support Beyer and his son.
Father Juan A. Puigbó, pastor of St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax and a family friend, said that he knew the Beyers since the early years of Andy and Justyna’s marriage.
“I met them when Brielle was 6 months old, and she was found with this rare kind of cancer,” Father Puigbó said. He recalled that the couple met with him shortly after the diagnosis. “I asked Andy, ‘Do you believe in miracles?’ ” He said the couple then prayed before the Blessed Sacrament for Brielle’s healing. By their next doctor’s appointment, Brielle had healed, he said.
Over the years, the family remained close with Father Puigbó. “I gave (Brielle) her first Communion,” he said. Of Justyna and Andy, he said, “They were an amazing, beautiful couple.”
On the day of the crash, Father Puigbó said he suddenly felt called to pray for the family. The next day, he received a text from Andy, asking if they could talk. Father Puigbó replied yes immediately, without a thought that Justyna or Brielle were gone.
Miracles bring us closer to the Lord, Father Puigbó said. Through her own life and healing, “Brielle came to bring us closer to the Lord, and Justyna was there as a mother, supporting her daughter to go up to heaven.”
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge offered noon Mass for the victims at St. Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington Jan. 30.
“A tragedy like last night is also a reminder to all of us of how fragile life really is,” he said in his homily. “Each new day is a gift. Each moment we have with loved ones is a gift. Each day to do good for others is a gift.”
Father Edlefsen offered a Mass for the victims at Our Lady of Lourdes Feb. 1. Among the worshippers were airline and Army personnel. “When you went to work that day, you did not know what you would have to confront that evening,” he said in his homily. “As we all process this, which takes time, the gentle whisper of God’s healing peace is working beneath the surface of things, like an underground stream, bringing all things — even life’s tragic events — to a resolution.”
As of Feb. 8, all 67 bodies were recovered from the crash site and have been identified, according to CBS News. The crash is the deadliest U.S. air disaster since 2001.
Donofrio can be reached at [email protected].
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