What was meant to be a joyful reunion between Andy Beyer and his wife and daughter — who were headed home on American Airlines Flight 5342 — turned into an unfathomable tragedy.
Andy Beyer was waiting in his car near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 29 with his son when he learned that his wife, Justyna Beyer, and their 12-year-old daughter, Brielle Beyer’s, plane had been in a midair collision with an Army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.. The incident ultimately killed 67 people.
The mother and daughter — a figure skater — were on the D.C.-bound flight from Wichita, Kansas.
In a recent interview with CNN, the husband and father of two described his grief in such a way that the show’s host, Kaitlan Collins, was brought to tears.
“I go through these moments of extreme sadness and tears, and then I get flat and numb,” Andy Beyer explained at the top of the interview. “And then I feel guilty that I’m not just crying all the time.”
His voice wavered at moments as he spoke through tears to recall the night he and his son drove to pick up Justyna Beyer and Brielle, just as they had countless times before. Parked near the airport, the family exchanged texts in the moments leading up to their expected landing — routine messages filled with anticipation.
But then, something changed.
“The tracker said ‘landed,’ and texts went from blue to green,” he explained. “And then fire trucks started going by. And at that point, I knew something was wrong.”
Andy Beyer got into contact with someone who was able to confirm that the plane crashed, and then he had to deliver the news to his son.
“He came into the front seat with me,” Andy Beyer said. “He let out a really long cry. He just said, ‘No!’ You know? It really hurt. That’s how we found out before anything was really official. But we already knew.”
Andy Beyer described Brielle as “the most amazing gift I could have asked for,” a daughter who was bright and eager to learn.
“She was the dream girl from the moment that I met her, and she just kept exceeding our expectations — from the time she was a baby to the time she was reading chapter books at age 3, to how she excelled in figure skating, made friendships, you know, better than my wife ever could,” he said. “She was a social butterfly, smiled in the smallest moments. She was just a joy and a gift. We never forgot that. We soaked it all in.”
In Brielle’s short life, she overcame incredible challenges. When she was 4 months old, she was diagnosed with cancer.
“That was hard because that was like waking up to a nightmare. But at least there was hope then, you know?” Andy Beyer said. “And we went through so many cycles of kind of like loss and then relief — you know, you get a bad result, and then there was still hope. And then when she finally was more or less clear, you know, we just had this sense of relief. And so for this to happen after that — we just didn’t think anything so bad could ever happen again. You know, that cancer was like one in 100,000. And, you know, plane travel is supposed to be safe.”
Andy Beyer also spoke about Justyna Beyer, a devoted mother who filled their children’s lives with warmth and magic.
“She was the most wonderful mother. She wanted to make every moment special for the kids — and she did,” he continued. “She created those magic memories, you know, for Brielle too. And we thought those would sustain her into adulthood, that she’d be able to draw from them. So it’s really sad that she doesn’t get to do that. She deserved that. She was wonderful. She was my soulmate. I’m going to miss her so much.”
In spite of his grief, Andy Beyer is focusing on sharing his wife and daughter’s story so that they — and the other victims — will be remembered.
“They deserve to have their story known to the world,” he said. “I mean, everyone dies, right? And they live on in our memories. And I want people to have a memory of them so that they live on.”
For Andy Beyer, there is some solace in focusing on his son and experiencing support from his community.
“Everyone has stepped up in such a big way, and it is what is keeping me going,” he said.
