Ozark Airlines Flight 809: Fiftieth anniversary ceremony

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KFVS) - Dozens of people gathered this afternoon in St. Louis to remember the lives lost 50 years ago when Ozark Airlines flight 809 went down.

38 names read one by one. Honoring the lives lost when Ozark flight 809 went down in a thunderstorm July 23, 1973.

Donna Diebold found the names of her grandparents John and Ruth Diebold on a memory board.

“It’s surreal, a little bittersweet knowing this is the place where our loved ones perished years ago,” said Diebold.

Diebold attended the event with her aunt Johnetta McConnell for this memorial service.

McConnell reflected on the last time she saw her parents as they boarded the flight in Cape Girardeau.

“It was cloudy and stormy and my son said Grandpa what happens if you get in a storm? He said we just fly above it,” McConnell said.

“Yeah, that was his last words,” Diebold said.

“It wasn’t storming in Scott City but it was in St. Louis,” McConnell said.

Diebold remembered too and said, “It wasn’t storming when they left Cape, but it was up here,” Diebold said.

Also at the service was Barbara Glass and her daughter Shannon. Barbara was 6 months pregnant when she lost her husband John that fateful day.

Glass calls raising Shannon her greatest accomplishment.

“My father was a passenger on that flight, there’s a plane flying over right now interestingly, anyways, we’ve been out here organizing this but we wanted to mark the fiftieth anniversary of this horrible event and remember the loss,” Shannon said.

Father George Brennan remembers the crash all too well. He actually saw the devastation as he drove along interstate 70.

“I looked over, but the plane was already down, and it had really hit, and I was not in a position to get out or anything,” said Brennan.

And now half a century later, he’s here to help these families remember their loved ones.

“I solemnly bless this site in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit,” said Brennan.

McConnell said she wants this ceremony to help her move past a tragedy she’s lived with most her life.

“You know I just want to thank everybody for their presence and what everybody has done,” McConnell said.

The families of Ozark 809 are working with leaders from the University of Missouri to put a permanent marker on or near the crash site.

A university spokesman said they are open to discussions on the project.