Content area
Full Text
Father Michael Geraghty thought things were winding down by early November 2001. The previous two months had been intensely traumatic for his parish in Belle Harbor, Queens. He had lost 12 of his flock in the September 11 attacks - six were working in the twin towers, another six were firefighters who had gone in to try to save them. "In our particular parish we were having masses and memorials constantly at that time," Geraghty says. "It was a difficult process following the World Trade Centre because families had to begin grieving without knowing for sure if their loved ones were dead - identifying the missing took so long."
The last of the memorials was on Friday November 9. "I did feel in one way that one chapter of the sadness was over," he says.
On Monday Geraghty went to work at St Francis de Sales church on this peninsula that hangs on to New York by a thread, perching precariously out into the Atlantic, and started to try to recreate some sort of normality. At around 9.18am he was at the altar celebrating mass when he felt "a tremendous vibration". "I could feel it in my legs. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was something bad. I thought it was another terrorist attack." A young woman ran in and said there was a fire at the end of the street. Geraghty dismissed the congregation. "I told them, 'It's time to go home and find your loved ones.' Planes were weapons in those days."
Just a few blocks away, American Airlines flight 587 had fallen from the sky a few minutes after taking off from nearby John F Kennedy airport on its way to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. One engine fell on the intersection of Beach and 128th; the other on the petrol station at Beach and 129th. The fuselage descended on Beach and 131st. The Rockaway community was back in mourning. All 260 passengers and crew on board perished, along with five people on the ground. It was the second-deadliest aviation disaster in American history. A government investigation has ruled out terrorism but, five years on, many of the victims' relatives, pilots and at least one congressman...
