Columbia University Community Mourns Victims In Honduran Bus Crash
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The Columbia University campus was in mourning Thursday night, with fond memories of three students who were killed in a bus crash in Honduras.
As CBS2's Brian Conybeare reported, the students and a U.S. health care worker – all women – were killed Wednesday when the bus crashed while taking them to the airport to fly home after a volunteer mission helping poor Hondurans.
Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger identified the victims in an email to students Wednesday night as 20-year-old Columbia sophomore Olivia Erhardt, 21-year-old Barnard junior Daniella Moffson and 45-year-old Abigail Flanagan, a nurse practitioner at Columbia University Medical Center and a student at the university's School of General Studies.
Bollinger said other Columbia students were injured in the accident. He said they were volunteering for the Columbia chapter of U.S.-based Global Brigades, which organizes international health and development missions.
"This terrible and tragic loss is all the greater because these individuals were dedicating their passion and very special talents to serving those in need,'' Bollinger said. "No endeavor more proudly exemplifies the traditions and values of our university.''
The group had been volunteering for several days with doctors and pharmacists as part of a medical mission in San Juancito and Valle de Angeles.
They were on their way to the airport to return to the U.S. when, officials said, the bus veered off a road on a highway east of the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. It then fell at least 260 feet into a ravine.
Firefighters' spokesman Capt. Gustavo Barahona said the crash was believed to be the result of mechanical failure.
Global Brigades posted a notice on its website saying, "Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to all those affected by this tragedy."
On Thursday night, there were hugs and tears as Columbia students and heartbroken family members left a private memorial service for Moffson at the Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life, 606 W. 115th St.
"We loved her. We love her," said Moffson's uncle. "It's very tough for all of us."
Moffson's uncle described his niece as kind and sensitive -- always willing to help others. And that was exactly what the group was doing over holiday break as they volunteered in a humanitarian medical mission for the poor.
Moffson family lives on the Upper East Side. They said they were on their way to Honduras to recover their daughter's body.
Friends say Moffson was a bright star. She grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family on the Upper East Side. Over the summer, she was a camp counselor at Camp Simcha, a kosher summer camp for kids and teens battling cancer.
"She has this magnetic aura to her," said Rivky Schwartz, head camp counselor. "Everyone wanted to be near her, see what she was doing, to be her friend.
"We really lost a sister today. The world lost a gem."
Friends of Moffson were gathering Thursday night on campus to remember her.
Erhardt, of Cincinnati, was a science major and writer for the student-run magazine. She was remembered by her high school principal.
"So to give up her break when people her age are off skiing or going to the beach, she went to Honduras to take care of people, and that's not so surprising at all," said the principal, Dr. Jim Renner.
Lisa Schacter was best friends with Flanagan, who lived in Rockland County with her son, Patrick, 19. He tried to save his own mother by doing CPR after the crash, but she later died at the hospital.
"She was truly a shining star, and my feeling is she's going to continue to shine among the stars wherever she's at," Schacter said.
Ulysses Johnson III worked in the unit next to Flanagan.
"We felt the hit," he told CBS2's Meg Baker. "We're all one big unit, one big hospital together and we're all a family. So when one of our soldiers goes down, we all kind of feel the wrath."
He said she worked both day and night shifts in the cardiac coronary unit with heart attack patients.
"We spend a lot of time here," he said.
Flanagan's neighbors in Sparkill, in Rockland County, couldn't believe the news.
"Always been a caring, giving person, so I could really see her doing what she was doing," said George Kalfayan.
"She always had a smile," Gregory Kalfayan told WCBS 880's Stephanie Colombini. "She would always brighten up everybody's day. And it's a shame."
Others were also dramatically affected. Margo Langstaff, a Barnard student, knows a few people who went on the trip.
"It's tragic," she said. "I can't even imagine that for families and stuff."
Columbia is offering support to students.
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