Mayor Bill de Blasio shows up early for Flight 587 memorial

A memorial bell tolled Thursday morning to commemorate the moment in 2001 that a Dominican Republic-bound jetliner crashed into a Queens neighborhood and killed 265 people.

Fourteen years after the doomed American Airlines Flight 587 went down over Belle Harbor, still-grieving relatives gathered at a memorial in the nearby Rockaway Park neighborhood to console one another and remember their loved ones.

"I just wish I could bring my mom back," said Karen Tavarez, 43, of the Pelham Parkway section of the Bronx, crying as she held Mayor Bill de Blasio's hand. Her mother, Virgilia Tavarez, died at age 51.

"Fourteen years -- but the pain is still so strong," de Blasio said before the bell tolled.

The crash occurred two months after 9/11, causing fears of a repeat terrorist attack, but it was later determined to have been caused by turbulence from another plane shortly after takeoff from Kennedy Airport.

"We remember her every day of our lives, but today we share the experience with other people who lost their love ones as well," said Agustin Hernandez, 23, who was 9 when his mother, Zeneida Vega, 40, died aboard the plane. "There's a community of Flight 587 families."

The crash killed 260 people aboard and five people on the ground. Their names were read aloud as families wept and clutched photographs of their loved ones.

At last year's service, de Blasio infuriated some of the mourning families when he showed up about 20 minutes late, missing the 9:16 a.m. moment of silence and bell tolling to recall the downed jetliner and its victims.

He initially blamed fog for slowing the police boat that took him from Gracie Mansion but then said he'd had "a very rough night" that left him sluggish.

This year, de Blasio was early, chatting with families more than 45 minutes before the bell tolled. En route, his police-driven motorcade was seen on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway with emergency lights flashing, escorted by the NYPD's highway patrol, and parting traffic.

Tavarez said she took solace that the mayor wasn't late this year.

"It shows that he's gotten a little bit more responsible over the year," Tavarez said, "and at least he cared."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.