Families bid final goodbye

MALIBU, Calif. - The mourning for victims of Flight 261 yesterday came to the edge of the sea that swallowed the Alaska Airlines MD-83 and claimed 88 lives, throwing the passengers' families together in perhaps a lifelong bond of sorrow, loss and unanswerable questions.

"I know there is little words can do to soothe the anguish one feels when a loved one leaves them suddenly," California Gov. Gray Davis told 800 people at a memorial service at Pepperdine University. The service was open only to friends and families of the victims.

"I do know that someday we are likely to know the earthly cause of this tragic accident. But we may never know the answer to our collective questions: Why did it happen to me? Why did someone I love have to leave me so quickly? Why, God, did this happen?"

An hourlong service in the university's Firestone Fieldhouse ended with the release of 88 doves that quickly swept through clear skies and out over the Pacific Ocean as two Coast Guardsmen played an eerie, echoing round of taps.

Two Coast Guard helicopters, which earlier in the week had helped search for survivors, carried baskets of flowers out to sea near the crash site. A program given to mourners noted that, as the flowers were dropped into the water, a helicopter crew member was to say, "It is with great respect and reverence that we commemorate the crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 on the afternoon of January 31, 2000.

"We remember the people who perished on that fateful day."

Along with friends and families of victims yesterday were officials and volunteers who have helped in the search, fruitless rescue, grisly recovery, salvage and investigation that followed the Monday afternoon crash.

"There were a lot of tears and people sobbing," said Robert Scott, a psychologist and Red Cross volunteer who has been helping the families.

He said he went to the service to hug any family who needed support. But he said he had to comfort more Red Cross workers moved by the service than family members.

A convoy of more than 20 buses brought the families to the picturesque Pepperdine campus on a hillside overlooking the ocean.

Red Cross spokesman Chris Thomas said the families helped decide what would be an appropriate memorial.

There were 88 candles burning and piano music playing as families entered the large auditorium. There, they heard from religious leaders from each of the six faiths shared by the victims.

"We want you to know there is a tomorrow," Rabbi Aaron Kriegel said. "We are stronger because they lived."

Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater read a message from President Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton: "While there are no words that can ease the pain of your devastating loss, we hope that you can draw strength and comfort from one another and from the knowledge that Americans throughout our nation share your grief."

Ed White, Alaska Airlines vice president of customer relations, told the families of his grieving this week. Many passengers on the plane were company employees.

White talked about his time on a secluded beach Thursday before the families arrived for a private ocean-side visit.

"I took a walk on the beach to reflect on this loss that has hurt us all so deeply," White said. "That was a very difficult time for me. Standing there alone, looking out over the Santa Barbara Channel, I thought of Flight 261, our crew members and our passengers - the precious people you would soon be there to remember.

"I cried until tears would no longer come."

When the families arrived that day, White said he walked the beach to watch and listen as family members found their own way to mourn. Some took vials of sand and water. Television pictures showed others throwing mementos to sea. Some collapsed in the tide.

"I felt a tremendous compassion within each family, and the collective feeling of love and sorry was simply overwhelming." -David Postman and Kim Barker

MERCER ISLAND - Scores of Alaska Airlines flight attendants, dressed in navy blue uniforms trimmed with gold, filed past clusters of green, yellow and white helium balloons yesterday as they entered St. Monica Catholic Church in Mercer Island. The employees dominated the pews, sometimes taking up entire rows, to say farewell to a colleague who was more than a friend.

To 33-year-old Allison Shanks, one of three flight attendants on Alaska Airlines Flight 261, these mourners represented her second family.

"Our family is fractured," flight attendant Victoria Nab said during Shanks' memorial service. "It will never be the same."

Neither will Hailey, Shanks' 4-year-old daughter, who sat with Shanks' mother, sister, brother and sister-in-law near the front of the church. Hailey was Shanks' pride and joy, Nab said.

"To that end," she told Shanks' relatives, "Allison's second family would like to honor her by pledging that we will do whatever it takes to help Hailey."

The 200 or so Alaska flight attendants in the church responded by standing up as one to show their solidarity and commitment to the child.

Nab and others who eulogized Shanks described her as stylish, spunky and full of verve. She loved to shop, play in the sun, exercise and root for the Sonics. She wasn't much for formality and saw humor in just about everything.

In that vein, her brother Andrew surveyed all the female flight attendants in the church and asked, "I never knew she had so many girlfriends, because growing up she didn't set me up with a single one."

It was a light moment on a heavy day.

After the service, about 30 members of Shanks' families - both of them - formed a circle outside the church, each person grasping a single helium balloon. After a brief prayer, they released the balloons in unison. The Rev. Stephen Szeman said the balloons symbolized the release of the free spirit that personified Shanks.

As the balloons floated toward the scattered clouds, a jet flew high above them. Appropriately, it was an Alaska Airlines jet. -Stuart Eskenazi

SEATTLE - In the same church where Rod and Sarah Pearson were married more than eight years ago, about 500 mourners paid tribute yesterday to their lives and those of their two daughters, 6-year-old Rachel and 22-month-old Grace.

The Queen Anne family of four died in the crash of Flight 261. Rod Pearson owned Six Degrees restaurant near Green Lake, and Sarah Pearson was an Alaska Airlines flight attendant. Rachel attended John Hay Elementary.

The wisdom of one of Rachel's young playmates provided some solace to those grieving inside St. Anne Catholic Church on Queen Anne. The Rev. David Jaeger, the church's temporary pastor, said the playmate's mother had explained to the girl that Rachel and her family were not coming home but instead were going to heaven.

The girl's response: "It's nice that they're all still together." -Stuart Eskenaz.