Search PEP Archives | December 2001 Table of Contents | Public Employee Press Archives | Home Members and families lost on Flight 587 Disaster struck the city again when American Airlines Flight 587 to the Dominican Republic crashed Nov. 12 in Belle Harbor, Queens. District Council 37’s members, many of whom continue to work on the frontlines at Ground Zero and in city hospitals, were still grieving after the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attack when word of the new tragedy hit. The Nov. 12 crash killed 265 people. As PEP went to press, with information still coming in, DC 37 had learned that the victims included three members of Local 420 who were on the flight, and the families of two Emergency Medical Technicians in Local 2507 and a Metropolitan Museum Guard who is a member of Local 1503. District Council 37 and its union family of 125,000 members and 40,000 retirees extend their deepest condolences to the families and co-workers of those lost on Flight 587 and to the members who lost loved ones in the crash. They include: Hospital Employees Local 420 member Magnolia Nadir Pena, a Certified Nurse’s Aide at Gouverneur Hospital who died on Flight 587. Local 420 members Norberto Rivera and Victor Ramirez, both Housekeepers at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, who were also on the plane. Richard Solis of Local 1503, who works at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, lost his mother, sister, brother-in-law and a niece who were passengers on Flight 587. EMT Edward Medina, a member of Local 2507 who cared for wounded rescue workers after the Sept. 11 disaster, lost his father, stepmother, grandfather and younger brother and sister, who were traveling to the Dominican Republic from Providence, R.I. EMT Willie Costa, also of Local 2507, lost his stepmother, who was on American Airlines Flight 587.