Sadness and the passage of time mark TWA Flight 800 tribute

Oliver Krick was 25 in the summer of 1996 and seemed destined to become an airline captain.

His father, Ronald Krick, a captain for American Airlines before he retired 16 years ago, taught him how to fly a small private plane when he was young.

"It was our way of life to fly," said Margret Krick, Oliver’s mother.

On Wednesday morning, she arrived at Long Island MacArthur Airport from St. Louis for her annual visit to the TWA Flight 800 Memorial at Smith Point County Park in Shirley. The memorial honors her son and the 229 others killed when the Boeing 747 exploded on the night of July 17, 1996, above the Atlantic Ocean near East Moriches.

It was Oliver Krick’s fourth trip as a TWA flight engineer, his mother said. The plane was headed for a stopover in Paris before its destination of Rome when it exploded just 12 minutes after takeoff from Kennedy Airport. Investigators determined that a fuel tank explosion, likely caused by a wiring problem in the second jet engine, caused the explosion.

Every year on the solemn anniversary, loved ones like Krick return to the memorial. Fourteen half-mast flags representing the countries of all those onboard blew through the warm Wednesday evening air above a series of reflective onyx and gray granite monuments at the memorial.

About three dozen mourners read aloud their loved ones’ names listed on the memorial’s largest structure. They talked with one another as they waited to release carnations into the nearby waters at 8:31 p.m., the time of the explosion.

Wanda Kemp said she and her son, Chris Kemp, had not visited the memorial in 12 years. She said that a much larger crowd joined them the last time they visited and said that could be because many family members of those killed 28 years ago have since died.

"Most times we came it was filled with chairs and people," said Wanda Kemp, who flew in from Augusta, Georgia. She lost her brother, Lamar Allen, and nephew, Ashton Allen, in the explosion. 

"But I imagine the 30th [anniversary] will be big," Kemp added.

Long Islanders who did not lose loved ones on TWA Flight 800 passed through the monument as the evening progressed.

John DiMarco was activated as a volunteer EMS worker with the Manorville Fire Department after the plane exploded. DiMarco said he visited the monument Wednesday to feel "solace."

Like many who responded to calls that evening, DiMarco said he was "prepared, but not prepared" for the mass casualty call. A resident of nearby Ridge, he said he visits the memorial a few times a year.

"We take the grandkids down here and teach them to respect those that have gone," he said.

For Margret Krick, the life-changing event never quelled her family’s airbound spirit.

She said her younger son, Christopher Krick, fulfilled his older brother’s destiny and recently made captain with American Airlines.

"He was going to go into premed," she said of Christopher. "But after his brother was killed, he called me and said, ‘Mom, I changed my major ... It’s what my brother would want.’ "