Ouachita Baptist University faculty member Cindy Fuller accompanies during a 10th anniversary prayer service held June 1 at the Arkansas school to commemorate the crash of Flight 1420. Fuller and her husband, Charles, were among the survivors of the June 1, 1999, crash. The Fullers’ 14-year-old daughter, Rachel, was among 11 people who died from injuries sustained in the crash. (PHOTO/Malissa Bain, Arkadelphia Daily Siftings Herald)
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ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (ABP) — Ten years after a plane crash killed two members of the school’s chorus, students, faculty and alumni of Ouachita Baptist University held a June 1 prayer service to memorialize American Airlines Flight 1420.
The service, held in Berry Chapel on the school’s Arkadelphia, Ark., campus, was patterned after the season of prayer conducted by Ouachita faculty and staff in the wake of the crash in June, 1999. It included prayer, music and reflections by Charlie Fuller, Cindy Fuller, Dave Ozmun and Amy Gaden Taylor, all members of the 1999 Ouachita Singers travel group who were involved in the crash.
On Tuesday, June 1, 1999, at 11:51 p.m., Flight 1420 overshot the runway at Little Rock National Airport when the pilot attempted to land during a severe thunderstorm. Twenty-five members of the Ouachita Singers travel group were on board, returning from a tour of Europe.
Senior James Harrison died at the crash site. Rachel Fuller, the 14-year-old daughter of Ouachita faculty members Charlie and Cindy Fuller, and senior Kristin Maddox Cheng were admitted to Arkansas Children’s Hospital with severe burns. The others in the tour group were treated for smoke inhalation or minor injuries and released.
Rachel Fuller died two weeks later as a result of her injuries.
The anniversary memorial service began with a moment of silent prayer on behalf of the 228 people aboard an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. The plane was reported missing hours before the prayer gathering, and was presumed lost over the Atlantic Ocean.
Charlie Fuller, former dean of Ouachita’s School of Fine Arts, led the chorus on their European tour in 1999. Noting that “there are more stories of the crash of Flight 1420 than we can count,” Fuller said, “There are stories of corporate greed and incompetence, stories of terrible suffering and loss” as well as “heroic stories of those who selflessly aided each other and placed themselves at risk in order to bring total strangers to safety.”
Recounting the “thunder, lightning, hail, torrential rain and fire,” Fuller declared, “Evil screamed at humanity through needless suffering — physical, emotional and spiritual.
“In response to the screams of evil and the cries of humanity, God spoke; he whispered,” Fuller added. “And as usual, he didn’t give us the answer we wanted, but he enveloped us in the answer that we needed. The answer was and is his presence.”
Emphasizing that “God is all about relationship,” Fuller said both his daughter Rachel and Harrison were also “all about relationship.”
“How does God give us hope?” he concluded. “Through his presence embodied in those who stand with us when we need it.”
Dave Ozmun, professor of mass communications, also was among those aboard Flight 1420. Even amid the confusion, disorientation and “suffocating black smoke” in the wake of the crash, Ozmun said, “I do remember very vividly knowing that God was there. I was very conscious of his presence.”
Reflecting on that experience a decade later, he said his hope today is that “wherever I go and whatever the circumstances, I will never forget that God is here.”
Jeff Root, now dean of Ouachita’s School of Humanities, was serving as OBU’s director of public relations at the time of the crash. Recalling a flood of media calls “from every major news organization in the nation and some from other countries,” Root said, “Crashes of commercial airliners always receive major media coverage, but a crash with survivors creates a media frenzy.”
Among the countless news stories, Root recounted Fuller’s interview with Diane Sawyer on “Good Morning America.”
When Sawyer asked if the crash and his daughter’s injuries had shaken Fuller’s faith, his response “was one of the greatest testaments to faith I have heard,” Root said. He noted that Fuller told Sawyer, “Diane, there are times in your life when your faith has to mean something. It can’t be something you just talk about. It has to be something that empowers you to live life.”
Following the funerals for Harrison and Fuller, Root added, “In the midst of all the pain and turmoil, I could clearly see Charlie and Cindy reaching out to comfort those of us who wanted to comfort them.”
Affirming faculty and staff members “who love and follow the Lord” and “who care deeply for the growth and well-being of their students and former students,” Root said such commitment helps ensure that “Ouachita will make a difference in the world and will be worthy to be forever identified with the passengers of Flight 1420.”
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Trennis Henderson is vice president for communications at Ouachita Baptist University.