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Families, officials and community leaders gathered June 1 at Alexandria’s Rivergate City Park to dedicate a memorial to the 67 people killed in the collision involving American Airlines Flight 5342 and an Army Black Hawk helicopter.

Held along the Potomac River near the crash site, the ceremony came more than a year after the January 29 tragedy. Speakers remembered the victims’ lives, thanked the first responders who recovered them and pressed for safety measures intended to prevent another disaster.

Sheri Lilley, stepmother of co-pilot Sam Lilley, urged those attending to remember the victims as more than casualties of the crash. They were parents, children, partners, friends, colleagues, teammates and service members whose influence reached communities around the world, she said.

Relatives described plans and milestones abruptly taken away, including advancing careers, engagements and growing families.

Mary Wigstrom remembered her daughter Wendy Wigstrom, a Minnesota native and chemical engineer who was traveling home to North Carolina to see her young children. Wendy’s final words to her mother were, “I love you, mom.” She simply wanted to return to her boys, Mary said.

Audrey Patel shared another deeply personal story. The wedding ring belonging to her husband, Vikesh, was recovered from the Potomac and returned to her, allowing her to hold a symbol of their relationship again.

The memorial also recognizes the first responders who mobilized on the night of the crash. Tim Lilley, Sam’s father, said his family later went onto the river with the harbor patrol and met the person who recovered his son’s body from the wreckage.

He said the care and respect shown by recovery crews helped families bring their loved ones home one final time and could never be fully repaid.

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, acknowledged that no ceremony could give the families what they truly deserved: the return of their loved ones.

She said the world lost 67 people on January 29 who have been missed every hour, minute and second since the collision. They should still be celebrating birthdays, welcoming babies and sharing ordinary moments of happiness with their families, she said.

Homendy also emphasized the need to carry out safety recommendations issued after the crash. With millions of passengers moving through U.S. airspace each day, she warned that every delay in implementation prolongs an unacceptable public-safety risk.

Attendees closed the ceremony in quiet reflection, many looking across the Potomac toward the place where their loved ones died.

Tim Lilley thanked Alexandria, Mayor Gaskins and Congressman Beyer for establishing the permanent memorial to the 67 people lost that evening.