Hartley and Joy Anderson on their wedding day in 1947 -- a decade before the air crash that killed her and scarred him. He died in 1991.

Dear Mr. McCarthy:

Our family is grateful for the New York City Department of Correction and the New York Correction History Society's efforts in commemorating the 1957 Rikers Island air disaster and the heroism of both departmental staff and inmates that terrible night.

My mother, Joy Anderson, was one of the 20 fatalities in the air crash. My father, Ralph Hartley Anderson, was aboard the aircraft as well and survived, but was badly burned.

An inmate pulled him from the flames, but was unable to rescue my mother due to the rapid increase of heat and smoke. The rescue effort of the inmates and officers was quite astounding.

Joy Anderson had been sitting beside her husband Hartley Anderson.

Bill and Bob Anderson at the Rikers Island flag pole after placing flowers there Feb. 1, 2007, in memory of Joy Anderson.

They had been on their way to Florida for a vacation.

Their trip had commenced in Montreal.

The event was catastrophic for our family in many ways.

But the five surviving children back home in Canada were raised up, with the help of many relatives and friends and, after dad remarried in 1959, my stepmother.

I was only 3 years old when mom died, and have no recollection of her. But there is a painful sense of loss that haunts me to this day.

I became a private pilot years ago, and decided to look into the technical aspects of the crash.

Click image for Part III of this presentation.

The answers I found only seemed to increase my sense of loss, for the mistakes of the flight crew were so preventable, yet tragically human.

Blame, though, solves nothing; so perhaps my coming to the site will finally bring closure to this sadness for me.

I also would like a chance to thank the department and related authorities in some way for the amazing people they had in charge that night.