Family, friends mark 20th anniversary of USAir Flight 427 crash

MOON TWP. — Shortly after 7 p.m. Monday — after a moment of silence at the minute of the USAir Flight 427 crash in 1994 — Dennis Connolly began to read the names of the 132 people who perished.

As Connolly, finance director of the Flight 427 Air Disaster Support League, read the names, including that of his twin brother, Bob, family members at the memorial service rose and walked to the front of the room to receive a single flower reserved for each victim.

Moments before, those gathered at the DoubleTree Hotel in Moon Township had listened to KDKA-TV newscaster Stacy Smith remember his actions the night of the crash and how he had to say “the most difficult words” he ever had to on-air.

“We can now confirm there are no survivors,” Smith recalled saying, before directly addressing family and friends. “I paused, and my thoughts were of you.”

As people arrived Monday for the 20th and last formal anniversary service, a lone bagpiper played as attendees greeted each other with hugs, while a few stood off by themselves collecting their thoughts.

“Those were not the only lives that were affected,” Connolly said of the victims, “and everyone sitting here is proof of that.”

Connolly, who said the annual Sept. 8 service at Sewickley Cemetery will continue, said the ADSL represents “20 years of support of each other and being there for each other when we needed help.”

Speakers credited the ADSL with keeping pressure on the National Transportation Safety Board to find the cause of the accident — a malfunctioning rudder — and changing the way families of crash victims are treated by lobbying for federal legislation.

Former Ross Township resident Joanne Shortley-Lalonde, whose husband, Stephen, died in the crash, said she’s proud whenever she hears that the American Red Cross is assisting survivors of a disaster.

“I pause and reflect,” she said, “and am happy that we were a part of that.”

Janine Katonah, whose husband, Joel Thompson of Oak Park, Ill., was killed, said the first few months after the crash “remained blurred in my memory,” but joining with other survivors for NTSB hearings signaled her emergence “from the loneliness of grief.”

ADSL President Donna Kazan Weaver lost her father, Lee Weaver of Upper St. Clair Township, in the crash, but said she is grateful for the friends she’s made and the support she’s gotten over the years from the ADSL.

“Otherwise, the cumulative effect of our times of loss would be absolutely crushing,” she said.

The best way to honor her father, Weaver said, “is to do the best with this beautiful life that I’ve been given.”