U.S. and Canadian Towns Grieve Over Crash Victims

They wanted to show the Americans that they cared, so they gathered in the spare wooden church at the center of this lonely, snow-swept town on Sunday to pay their final respects.

There were the Mounties, resplendent in their red dress uniforms; the aging members of the Canadian Legion, bedecked with combat medals from World War II; the robed vestrymen and choir, standing stiffly at attention.

But most were the 600 townspeople--everyone who could be squeezed inside--all raising their voices in the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to pay homage to the 256 American soldiers and crew members who died here last Thursday when their chartered jetliner crashed on takeoff from this airport in Newfoundland.

The crash occurred as the paratroopers and support personnel from the 101st Airborne Division began the last leg of a flight returning them from peacekeeping duty in the Sinai Peninsula to their home base at Ft. Campbell, Ky.

Loss of Someone Close

Several people spoke at Sunday’s memorial service--members of the clergy, the Canadian minister of justice, the mayor of this community of 12,000--but their message was the same: sympathy for those who have lost someone dear on the eve of the Christmas holidays.

“We, who have suddenly grown old in this town, want to link hands with those in other towns who have suddenly grown old,” said Father Ed Bronley, the local Catholic priest.

“Our hearts are knitted with those in Ft. Campbell and in other cities in the United States,” the Rev. Cal Anthony, the town’s Pentecostal minister, added.

“On behalf of the prime minister and the government of Canada, we express our condolences,” said John Crosbie, the justice minister. “Even during times of peace, our servicemen and servicewomen continue to pay the ultimate price.”

Thomas Niles, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, told the congregation that despite the immensity of the loss, he had “felt some solace from the outpouring of sympathy that is evident today.”

When the 101st Airborne Division was formed in August, 1942, its first commander, Maj. Gen. William C. Lee, borrowing a phrase from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, told his men that the division had no history but had a “rendezvous with destiny.”

Lee’s prophecy was brought to mind Sunday in Clarksville, Tenn., just outside Ft. Campbell, where an interdenominational memorial service was held at the First Assembly of God Church.

Clarksville Mayor Ted Crozier, himself a retired military officer, said that the 101st Airborne had met its destiny on many occasions, including the D-Day landing in Normandy and the recapture of Hue in Vietnam.

“None of these events will be forgotten, ladies and gentlemen, and certainly not . . . those who have given their lives” in the Arrow Air crash at Gander.

The mayor and pastors of several Clarksville churches joined in the 40-minute service. Residents of the community fought back tears as they as they listened to the prayers and Scripture readings.

“I lost a son in Vietnam in 1970,” said white-haired Louise Hamilton of Clarksville. “This brought back every bit of the pain I felt then.”

In Gander, after the memorial service, Ambassador Niles told a reporter that despite the lack of publicly announced conclusions about what caused Thursday’s crash, he believes the investigation by Canadian safety experts is “going extremely well.”

Peter Boag, chief investigator for the Canadian Air Safety Board, said Sunday that he remains “optimistic that the cause of this crash will be determined by the board.”

Obstacles to Investigation

But under questioning, Boag conceded that his team has been “experiencing a number of difficulties”--most of them stemming from the “catastrophic destruction” of the plane on impact.

With no survivors to interview, the investigators have been forced to rely on whatever material evidence they can find amid the severely mangled debris. While the flight data recorder is expected to provide some information on the plane’s path during the final moments before impact, the cockpit voice recorder may be too severely damaged to provide any remarks by crew members.

In addition, Boag said, continuing bad weather at the crash site--snow and freezing rain have been falling on and off since the accident occurred--are hampering the investigation.

Some of the plane’s instruments and control devices may be flown to Ottawa for a laboratory analysis today, at about the same time that two U.S. Air Force C-141 transport planes are scheduled to arrive here to begin the removal of bodies for examination at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Dover, Del.

Twenty of the bodies are scheduled to be loaded into the planes and flown out this afternoon after military ceremonies. The rest of the bodies will be loaded during abbreviated ceremonies and flown to Delaware on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Eric Malnic reported from Gander and David Treadwell from Clarksville, Tenn.