Remembering Flight 587 victims on the 25th anniversary of the tragedy in the Rockaways

Vicente Sarmiento Richiez wanted a girl.

After suffering six miscarriages, and 10 years after the birth of their son, Alvin, Sarmiento Richiez and his wife, Alba Silverio, were astonished to learn they were pregnant with a second child.

"I don't think we're having another boy," Rachel Sarmiento, 24, said, repeating what her father told her godfather then. "I think it’s a girl, and I want this girl."

Sarmiento said her father was elated about having another child.

On Nov. 12, 2001, when Silverio was five months pregnant, Sarmiento Richiez boarded American Airlines Flight 587 at Kennedy Airport headed to the Dominican Republic, unaware of his child's gender but elated to share the good news with his family.

But he never did.

Sarmiento Richiez was among the 251 passengers and nine crewmembers killed instantly when the plane crashed minutes after takeoff in Belle Harbor due to catastrophic equipment failures.

The wreckage slammed into homes near the intersection of Beach 131 Street and Newport Avenue on the Rockaway Peninsula, killing five people on the ground. At least 11 houses were damaged or destroyed.

It is the second-deadliest aviation crash to date in the United States.

At the 25th anniversary memorial service, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said the loss goes beyond numbers and includes missed birthdays and people never meeting family members.

For Sarmiento, that pain is all too real.

"I grieve every day," Sarmiento said. "Every single day I wake up and I realize that I can't just say, ‘Hey Dad, what's up? How are you?’ "

Mamdani spoke of how New Yorkers supported one another after the horrific crash, from first responders to travel agents to the large Dominican community in Washington Heights.

"When Red Cross trucks pulled up to 129 Newport Ave., residents came out of their homes handing out snacks and bottles of water," Mamdani said. "In the wake of immeasurable tragedy, New Yorkers did what they have always done."

Cindy Tavarez, 50, of Manhattan, arrived to the memorial before the ceremony and placed flowers next to the names of her mother, Virgilia Tavarez De Mateo, and her son, Karl Steven Lora Tavarez.

Despite coming to the memorial over the years, Tavarez said she barely speaks about the crash that took her mother, who was in her 50s, and her son, who was just 3.

After the ceremony, Tavarez broke down, sobbing in her sister’s arms, the pain still as fresh as it was the day of the accident.

Francis Mateo, 43, of the Bronx, told Newsday he brought his wife and children to support his sister and honor his mother.

Holding a framed photograph of his family members, Mateo said his mother was a religious woman who was always helping others. He recalled one childhood memory, where his mother would go grocery shopping in the Dominican Republic and he and his siblings would hand out the food to people in need.

"It was easy for her to leave her plate of food and just give it to any random person in my home," Mateo said.

Virgilia Tavarez De Mateo lived in the Dominican Republic and traveled to the United States for healthcare appointments, Mateo said. She had taken her grandson back with her to meet family.

Roberto Jimenez, 38, of New Jersey, brought his young daughters to the service to honor his father and brother who were killed in the crash.

Jimenez, who is named after his father, Roberto Jimenez Perez, usually comes to the service without his daughters because it is often held on a school day, but for the 25th anniversary he let them skip school.

Jimenez’s grandmother, Anita Perez, 79, travels from the Dominican Republic every year to attend the memorial to honor her son and her grandson, Jimenez said. The two were 37 and 9 months old when they died, the family said.

Howard Cash’s company, Gene Codes Corporation, of Ann Arbor, Michigan, was brought in by the chief medical examiner in October 2001 to help manage the extraordinary amount of data generated in the effort to match and identify DNA samples after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Shortly after, the company was tasked with helping identify DNA samples of the victims of Flight 587.

"Both of these were really significant events in my life," Cash said. “[I] thought nothing worse could happen than what happened on 9/11 ... and something else happened."

Although he didn’t know the families of the victims of Flight 587, he traveled from Michigan to attend Thursday’s remembrance. 

Looking at the memorial wall, Cash told Newsday he recalled stories about so many of the names.

"You never really shake it off," Cash said.