Li-Chieh Szema, who studied American Airlines Flight 587 crash, dies at 88
Li-Chieh Szema his wife, Alice, on their wedding day in 1964. Credit: courtesy of Szema family
Li-Chieh Szema became incensed in 2001 when speculation about the causes of a deadly plane crash in Belle Harbor, Queens, focused on whether birds had been sucked into the jet's engines.
The former Mount Sinai resident and General Electric engineer came out of retirement to study the American Airlines Flight 587 crash, which had killed all 260 people on board and five more on the ground, said his son, Dr. Anthony Szema. The elder Szema, who had spent decades studying the impact of birds on jet engines, was sure the airplane was not to blame, the son said.
Szema's theory was vindicated when the cause of the crash later was attributed to turbulence.
"My father had actually earlier simulated a duck-flock crash" at a GE testing center in Cincinnati, Anthony Szema said. "What he told the GE people [was] there was no way that ducks caused the engine failure."
Li-Chieh Szema, who lived a storied life that included a daring escape with family members from their native China, died Nov. 16 at a care facility in Holmdel, New Jersey, from injuries caused by a subdural hematoma, his son said. He was 88.
Born Jan. 3, 1930, in Hunan, China, Szema was the youngest of five children of a family that traced its lineage to the Han dynasty in 202 B.C., said Anthony Szema, an East Setauket doctor and clinical associate professor of medicine at Hofstra University.
As the communist revolution spread across the country in the late 1940s, Li-Chieh Szema and his oldest brother’s family fled to Taiwan by boat. Two other siblings died at the hands of communists, Anthony Szema said.
"It was a harrowing journey," Anthony Szema said, "and they started a new life."
After serving in the Taiwanese air force and graduating from Provincial Cheng Kung University, Szema moved to the United States and received master’s degrees from New Mexico State University and Drexel University. He married Alice, a doctoral student at New York University, on June 6, 1964.
The couple and their growing family, including a son and daughter, moved several times, including stops at upstate Endicott and Schenectady, and Cincinnati. His family said Szema held several patents and designed gas turbines that had applications such as electricity generation and jet engines.
The son said Szema enjoyed writing poetry, one of a set of varied interests that included playing basketball, singing, ballroom dancing, long walks, and swimming with his grandchildren.
The wreckage of American Airlines flight 587 burns Nov. 12, 2001, in the Rockaway, Queens. The Airbus A-300 passenger jet crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground. Li-Chieh Szema's theory was vindicated when the cause of the crash later was attributed to turbulence. Credit: Getty Images /NYPD
Szema endowed several scholarships, including one at the Stony Brook University School of Medicine in honor of his late elder brother, Szema Yung Pien, a former chief of staff of the Ministry of Education in Taiwan, Anthony Szema said.
In addition to his wife and son, Szema is survived by a daughter, Katherine Szema of Shrewsbury, New Jersey, and four grandchildren. A funeral Mass was Saturday in Red Bank, New Jersey. Szema's body was cremated.
Carl MacGowan is a Long Island native who covers Brookhaven Town after having previously covered Smithtown, Suffolk County courts and numerous spot news and feature stories over his 20-plus year career at Newsday.