Swissair victims’ family member wants focus on Nova Scotians suffering because of crash

Claire Mortimer lost her Connecticut-based dad and stepmom in the crash of Swissair Flight 111, but said Sunday her losses have been sufficiently honoured by the people of Nova Scotia.

“And I appreciate that continuing, but I mainly am concerned about the Canadians who are involved in the aftermath, particularly the sorting of the human remains,” said Mortimer, who serves as a representative of the families of victims. “I know for a fact that a lot of those people have very severe post-traumatic stress disorder, and some of those people have taken their lives.”

Mortimer said she helps traumatized people in her work as a nurse practitioner, and wants to provide therapy to people affected by their experiences associated with the crash.

“The grief is nowhere near as bad as it was 25 years ago, but the nature of PTSD is that it gets worse with time; grief gets better with time,” she said at a ceremony Sunday at the Swissair memorial site in Whalesback near Peggys Cove, one of a series of weekend events attended by families, veterans and dignitaries.

The Canadian Coast Guard ship Sir William Alexander was in place just offshore, and a Cormorant helicopter did a flyover. On Saturday night, spotlights shone into the sky from the memorials at Whalesback and Bayswater.

“So many of you rushed into the darkness without the slightest hesitation,” Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said at Sunday’s ceremony. “You had been alerted, or had heard or seen it yourself, and wanted to go and just help.

“As we gather throughout this weekend, to remember and to honour the 229 passengers and crew who died that night, we pay tribute to all of you, the brave people from the Canadian Armed Forces, the RCMP, the fire, police and emergency services, and the communities that were closest to the crash.”

Lt.-Col. Trevor Jain said he sometimes still smells jet fuel and stale seawater, 25 years later.

“I was a fourth-year medical student and I got called at 3:30 in the morning the night the plane went down, and I was asked to report to Shearwater, to Hangar B,” Jain said Sunday.

“Subsequently I was tasked by Dr. John Butt to be the pathology operations officer, with orders to get the morgue up and running. I remember walking into Hangar B and the look of shock and horror on everybody’s face. It was very chaotic. Picture a very large warehouse with everybody running around, until we established command and control and organized ourselves.”

Though still a student at the time, Jain had a background as a pathology assistant and a morgue attendant.

He had two forensic suites running 12 hours after the plane went down, and that’s when their first autopsy was performed. Jain’s team made the decision not to meet any family members while they were doing their work, and he had not met any until Sunday.

“The reason being is I think we were trying to insulate ourselves to what we were doing,” Jain said. “We thought it would be difficult to meet the family members, but I’m very thankful that I got to meet a few today.

“I wanted to say my delayed condolences, 25 years after the fact, but they were more concerned with our well-being as people who worked the morgue.”