Sunday marks 26 years since crash of TWA Flight 800 off Long Island
SHIRLEY, N.Y. -- Sunday marks 26 years since the crash of TWA Flight 800 in the waters off Long Island.
The plane was bound for Paris when it went down shortly after take-off from John F. Kennedy International Airport.
All 230 people on board were killed. Investigators believe an electrical failure led to a fuel tank explosion.
Jill Ziemkiewicz, from Rutherford, New Jersey, was the youngest crew member. CBS2's John Elliott spoke to her brother Sunday.
"Jill was special. She was very personable. She was able to brighten up a room when she walked into it. She was funny," Matthew Ziemkiewicz said. "Anniversaries are tough. I mean, there's not a day that goes by we don't remember Jill ... It's hard to believe that it's 26 years this year since the whole crash and everything happened. It seems like only yesterday."
A memorial garden at the Meadowlands Environmental Center was dedicated in her honor.
"This garden was built using Jill's plans. She was an educated landscape architect. So a lot of these elements are things that she did as her final projects graduating Rutgers Landscape Architecture," Ziemkiewicz said.