CHARLOTTE — Families are marking one year since 67 people died in a mid-air collision over the Potomac River.
The disaster was the deadliest plane crash in the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
PSA Airlines Flight 5342 was preparing to land outside Washington, D.C., when it collided with a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter.
The crash killed everyone onboard both aircraft, including a Charlotte-based flight crew, soldiers, and children. Among the victims was flight attendant Ian Epstein.
Epstein’s daughters, Hannah Rowley and Kayla Morgan, have spent the last year navigating life without their father.
Epstein was working as a flight attendant on the PSA Airlines flight when the collision occurred.
Rowley recently used artificial intelligence to modify a photo from her wedding day, which took place two months after the crash, so it would appear as if her father were present.
“It’s my husband, me, and my mom. And then my dad was kind of photoshopped into it to see what he would have looked like on the day that I got married,” Rowley said.
She said that not having any photo with him from that day would have been sad. “So even just getting the opportunity to see what he would have looked like is really precious,” she said.
Epstein found his career path later in life, becoming a flight attendant in his late 40s during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While he originally lived in Harrisburg, he eventually worked his way up to being based out of Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.
Rowley said her father had spent much of his life searching for a career that made him happy before finding success in the airline industry.
“He spent his whole life trying to find something that made him really happy, and he was super excited to share it with other people,” Rowley said. “And he finally, definitely had found that in being a flight attendant.”
Rowley noted that he would often practice his announcements, looking forward to making jokes and brightening the day for passengers over the intercom.
Videos of Epstein’s intercom routines went viral after the crash. Morgan said seeing those videos of her father helping mothers and cheering up travelers provided a bright spot during the initial period of grief.
She said the videos reflected the core of who her father was and the impact he had on others.
“If there was a bright spot in the very beginning, it was that it was seeing videos of him cheering people up, helping mothers who were alone, all of those things,” Morgan said. “Like he made an impact on people.”
Despite the public tributes, Morgan said the family still has moments where they struggle to process that the crash actually happened.
The family honored Epstein during Rowley’s wedding by placing photos of him and other lost relatives on cocktail tables. Rowley described the wedding as a great day but noted the difficulty of his absence.
“I’d give anything to have him there,” Rowley said. Morgan added that the family wants to focus on celebrating his life rather than remaining in a somber state.
“He wouldn’t want us to be there all in black, like being super somber and upset,” Morgan said. “He would want us to be able to have moments where we are celebrating his life.”
The Epstein family plans to attend a memorial service tonight in Washington, D.C.
They intend to travel out on the Potomac River to pay tribute to the victims near the site of the crash.
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