Remembering the victims of Flight 3407
Many aboard flight returning to Buffalo for celebrations, reunions
updated 3:24 p.m. ET, Sat., Feb. 14, 2009
Those killed in Thursday's commuter airplane crash near Buffalo included mothers and fathers, athletes and students who were returning home for reunions. A Sept. 11 widow was on her way to a celebration as were several Buffalo-area residents.
The commuter airplane, carrying 49 people en route to Buffalo, crashed into a home in Clarence Center about 10:20 p.m. Thursday, bursting into flames. Everyone on the plane and a man inside the home were killed.
Flight 3407 victims who were identified include:
Ellyce Kausner
Kausner was a second-year law student at Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville. Her sister, Laura Kausner, said Ellyce was flying home to be her nephew's date at a kindergarten Valentine's Day party on Friday.
Kausner was part of a group of about a half-dozen young women who had remained close friends since middle school, Ciesla said.
"Ellie was a crazy, out-there kind of girl, totally full of life," Ciesla said. "This is a huge nightmare, the most surreal thing I've experienced."
Ciesla, who now lives in California, learned of Kausner's death when she got a call from a high school friend.
"I was in the grocery store when he called and I almost fainted right there," Ciesla said.
Coleman Mellett
An accomplished jazz guitarist, Mellett was a touring member of trumpeter Chuck Mangione's band for the last several years. The group was scheduled to perform Friday night at the Kleinhans Music Hall with the Buffalo Philharmonic.
Mellett grew up near Washington, D.C., and moved to New Jersey to study at William Paterson University, according to his MySpace profile. After graduating he moved to New York and earned a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1998.
Mellett, 33, lived in East Brunswick, New Jersey, with his wife, singer Jeanie Bryson, according to the Star-Ledger of Newark.
Madeline Loftus
Maddy Loftus, 24, of Parsippany, New Jersey, was headed to Buffalo for a reunion of the Buffalo State women's ice hockey team she played for in 2002 and 2003, said Jeff Ventura, the school's sports information director.
Loftus' 22-year-old brother, Frankie Loftus, said his sister never worried about flying because their father was a pilot for Continental. He said he dropped her off at the airport Thursday.
Danny Nadeau / AP
Madeline Linn Loftus
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"She was an amazing person. She loved to make everyone happy," he said. "Everyone who met her loved her instantly."
Loftus transferred to St. Mary's University in Minnesota after her sophomore year, Ventura said.
Loftus "was one the greatest people who ever came out of Buffalo State hockey," said her former teammate, Carolyn Totaro. "She worked really, really hard to be where she was. Hockey was her passion, especially when it came down to competition. She was so driven to play hockey."
Loftus played for Buffalo State from 2002-04, finishing with 10 goals and three assists over 47 games. In two seasons at St. Mary's, the 5-foot-5 forward had 11 goals and 10 assists in 52 games.
Gerry Niewood
Gerry Niewood was a childhood friend of Mangione and had been making music with him since the two were children. He lived in Glen Ridge, N.J., and played saxophone, clarinet and flute for some of the biggest names in pop music, according to his MySpace profile.
He was flying to Buffalo for a performance with Mangione's band.
Niewood once said he learned jazz improvisation on his own.
"I listened to jazz records and mentally transcribed them. Cannonball Adderley, Sonny Stitt, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane," he told City Newspaper, a Rochester, N.Y., weekly in 2006.
In addition to Mangione, Niewood backed artists as diverse as Peggy Lee, Simon and Garfunkel, Judy Collins, Frank Sinatra and Sinead O'Connor, among others. He also played on the soundtracks of movies including "A Bronx Tale," "When Harry Met Sally" and "King of Comedy."
Mary Pettys
Pettys, 50, of West Seneca, N.Y., was traveling home after a business trip for her job as a software director for an insurance firm.
Her fiance, William Adamski, said she last called around 6 p.m. Thursday to ask about the weather in the Buffalo area. He said that he tried to reach her cell phone several times, but it always went to voice mail. He heard from her company around 3:30 a.m. that her plane had crashed.
Adamski said his fiance loved to hike and play slot machines. "She was a woman of chance," he said.
The couple were engaged in December and had been planning a spring wedding.
A Canisius College graduate, Pettys had nine siblings.
Lorin Maurer
Maurer, 30, had worked raising money at Princeton University for its athletics department.
AP
Lorin Maurer with her boyfriend, Kevin Kuwik
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"We are heartbroken that someone so young and full of life could be taken from us so suddenly," Brian McDonald, the vice president of development at Princeton, said in a statement released by the university.
Maurer was traveling to New York to meet the family of her boyfriend, Kevin Kuwick, an assistant basketball coach at Butler University, The Buffalo News reported.
Maurer, who grew up in Sinking Spring, Pa., was a champion swimmer at Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey, where she graduated in 2001. She received a master's degree from the University of Florida.
She had worked at Princeton since 2005 |
