Grief Links the Survivors of Flight 261 Crash Victims

Forever linked by the loss of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 off the Port Hueneme coast, dozens of friends and relatives of those who died marked the crash’s second anniversary Thursday with prayers, tributes and the dedication of a permanent memorial site.

More than 70 people, most from the Seattle area and some from as far away as Fargo, N.D., made what many called “the pilgrimage” to Ventura County.

“My children will someday come down here, and this is how they will get to know who my sister was,” said 27-year-old Matthew Penna, whose sister Deborah died when the MD-83 jetliner traveling from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to San Francisco went down eight miles offshore. Five crew members and 83 passengers died.

“I personally feel obligated to be here, and I gain strength from everyone else.”

Penna made the trip from Seattle with his parents for the series of events that started with an 11 a.m. memorial Mass at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church in Westlake Village and was followed by a picnic and graveside service.

Thursday’s turnout was much smaller than last year’s event, which drew more than 850 people and was mostly paid for by the airline.

Many of the relatives expressed frustration at the pace of the legal proceedings and investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board. Investigators believe the crash was caused by the failure of the mechanism that controlled the plane’s horizontal stabilizer--the winglike projections on an aircraft’s tail which help control the up-and-down pitch of the plane.

Dozens of wrongful death lawsuits are pending, though more than 20 cases have been settled.

Thursday’s events concluded on a Port Hueneme beach, where family members expect to create a permanent memorial by next year.

With a Coast Guard search-and-rescue boat nearby, family members then formed a large circle, lighted candles of remembrance and listened as the victims’ names were read.

Several in the group held hands and walked barefoot to the shore to toss red roses into the surf at about 4:22 p.m., the time the plane crashed.

“I feel like half of me has been stopped,” said Desirae Donaldson, an independent filmmaker whose brother Monte, 29, a landscaper and underground disc jockey in Seattle, died in the crash with his fiance, Colleen Whorley.

“One minute they are here and the next minute they are gone, but it gives me a bit of healing to be back here.”

Earlier in the day, about 60 family members attended a private memorial Mass in Westlake Village. Msgr. Peter O’Reilly spoke of a parallel between the crash and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“One of the things we learned on Sept. 11 is that we are all linked together,” he said. “We mourn with your pain, but it is our hope that death is not the end.”

A picnic at Oak Canyon Community Park followed the service. After the meal, a motorcade proceeded to Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village for a graveside ceremony at the top of a hill where the remains of people never identified are buried.