Families of Flight 111 Crash Victims Dedicate Memorial

Families of those who perished last year on Swissair Flight 111, which crashed off the coast of this tiny fishing village, dedicated a monument Wednesday to the victims and those who helped recover their remains.

During a solemn ceremony on a remote bluff overlooking St. Margaret’s Bay, more than 800 family members joined 200 volunteers and military officials who had recovered the remains.

Just a day short of the one-year anniversary, the families silently disembarked from a caravan of buses near the monument and crowded together on boulders, forming a silhouetted line against the cloudless sky and the sparkling sea.

Their sheer numbers were a startling reminder of the scope of the air disaster, which killed all 229 people aboard the plane.

During the ceremony, Peggy Coburn, whose husband, Richard, had been on the New York-Geneva flight, thanked the villagers and military officials who, she said, had “helped and cared” after the crash.

“If I ever need strength or comfort, all I will need to do is remember you, and I will gain strength and I will be comforted,” said Coburn, who lives in New York.

Some wept as Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Andy Arsenault sang a ballad, called “Roses on the Rocks,” which had been written for the occasion. The mourners laid flowers on the rocks surrounding the monument.

The monument, which was designed with input from the families and the villagers, consists of two halves of a 6-foot tall granite stone. The two halves face each other. One is dedicated to the victims, and one to those who “worked tirelessly to provide assistance in the recovery operations and comfort to the families and their friends during a time of distress.”

One half of the boulder points toward a burial site, an elevated spot visible across the cove, where remains of the victims, mostly unidentified, were interred on Tuesday and Wednesday in two dozen metal coffins. Their families had come by bus to mourn earlier Wednesday at a private burial.

The other half of the boulder points toward the impact site.

The Canadian Navy frigate Ville de Quebec anchored offshore. A year ago, the Ville de Quebec had been one of the first ships to arrive on the scene.

As it steamed toward its position Wednesday, the ship stopped over the crash site, and the crew observed a moment of silence.

Scott Manuel, a firefighter from nearby Boutiliers Point, remembered laying flowers on the rocks for the families soon after the disaster. He recalled that a young girl next to him who had lost her father had burst into sobs.

“It was real difficult to feel all the pain,” Manuel said before the dedication ceremony. “I think I’ll be back often.”

Some of the families stayed away from the ceremonies because they were upset by the decision to bury 2,300 pounds of unidentified remains in a mass grave.

Remains that had been identified were given to the families for private burial.

It is still unknown what caused the fire that filled the cockpit and caused a massive outage of the jumbo jet’s electrical system.

A final report is not expected for more than a year.