Three years after Andros plane crash, community still in mourning

Three years after the tragic plane crash off Mastic Point, Andros, claimed the lives of six of the island’s residents, Kermit Adderley Sr. went to the site where he lost his wife, 49-year-old Margaret Adderley, to remember the 17 years they spent together and to say, “I still love you.”

“That’s my wife of 17 and a half years, the mother of my two kids,” Kermit Sr. told The Nassau Guardian.

“I could do no more than stop to pay respects to a fallen hero. I call her a fallen hero. Every time I stop, I say, ‘Baby, I’ll always love you.”

Yesterday made three years since the Piper Aztec plane crashed in shallow waters near the mainland, killing all six on board, including, Adderley; Ricardo Campbell, 52; Darren Clarke, 42; Valentino Russell; Desiree Russell, 33; and her 10-year-old daughter, Destinique Wilson.

Adderley’s son, Kermit Adderley Jr., said yesterday’s gloomy weather reminded him all too well of that fateful day that claimed the life of his mother who was on her way to meet her first grandchild, who was born just two days before.

“She was everyone’s favorite,” Kermit Jr. said as he remembered his mother.

“She was the favorite aunt, the favorite niece. Losing her didn’t only affect me and my brother, it affected the whole family. It’s definitely a struggle now because I’m expecting again.”

Adderley said despite how others may feel about the crash, over the past three years, he has been able to find and accept peace.

“Peace in the sense that I know it’s no fault of her own,” he said. “So, I have found peace, personally. I can’t stop something that God had planned. It didn’t have to happen that way but that’s the way he saw it fit. I feel it more so for my brother because he’s still in school. He’s in grade 11 and won’t have the opportunity either for his mother to meet his children. You feel that, you know.”

Eleanor Woodside said she spent the weekend wondering what would have come of her 10-year-old granddaughter Destinique Wilson, who was the youngest passenger on the flight.

“Sometimes I sit and I wonder what she would have been doing,” she said. “I just remember her as a kind and warm person. Very nice little girl.

“I just sit and I wonder. Me and my daughter just two nights ago sat down the night of the 16th and the night before and we were talking about the weather, how the weather was, why the pilot had to take passengers in that type of weather, all kinds of other questions.”

Her daughter, Theresa Woodside, is the aunt of Destinique Woodside and said the family visited the crash site yesterday.

“There was a lot of tears,” she said.

“We’re trying to cope with it. My brother is still terrified about it, but he’s hanging in there. Day by day, we just try do something new just to get the past in the past.”

North Andros MP Carlton Russell said everyone on the flight was a relative of his and that each day makes it no easier. 

“It’s been hard,” he said. “You’ll never forget the day it happened and the events that took place. It will forever be in our minds. It’s been rough and you’re reminded of it often.”

Elizabeth Saunders lost her nephew, 42-year-old Darren Clarke, who piloted the doomed flight.

She said the past weekend has been so rough that she refused to go to church yesterday, where Androsians held a special remembrance for the six victims.

“I was so torn up that I couldn’t get up and go to church,” Saunders said.

“It is really hard. I thank God for the closure and everything, but every year, it’s just like it just happened.”

Saunders said the family got closure after they were able to receive Clarke’s remains and give him a proper burial.

She recalled that fateful day of January 17, 2018, when she got the call from a family friend who shared the heartbreaking news.

“It was the niece of Margaret Adderley who called and said they were at the airport and the flight left whatever time and the flight hadn’t landed as yet,” Saunders recounted.

“Oh my God, that’s a day I don’t want to ever relive, especially for his mother, which is my sister. She’s been taking it bad. Right now, she’s on all sorts of medication. You know, she had just lost another son in a motorbike accident the year before. Right after we had just buried him and were getting over it, then bam, the plane crashed.”

The Air Accident Investigation Department (AAID) report had concluded that pilot error was to blame for the crash, coupled with bad weather conditions.

The report noted that the crash was “not survivable” due to the high speed and angle contact with the ocean, and the magnitude of the deceleration forces.

The post Three years after Andros plane crash, community still in mourning appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

source https://thenassauguardian.com/three-years-after-andros-plane-crash-community-still-in-mourning/