"We have been in pain for the last 11 days, but they will always remain in our memories and remind us from up high to never lose our ability to smile," Montal's father, Joan CamprubÃ, said during the nearly two-hour service.
"We have been in pain for the last 11 days, but they will always remain in our memories and remind us from up high to never lose our ability to smile," said Joan Camprubí. "The Pope believed in the transformative power of a 'smile and a sense of humor.'"
The helicopter that broke apart mid-flight and plunged into the Hudson near Jersey City last week, killing the pilot and a family of five, flew more than 8,000 missions in the New York area during the last five and a half years, according to a flight history database compiled by the aviation consultancy FlightAware.
"We are really shocked. I was shaking," said Melissa Maertem, 23, who is visiting Manhattan from the Netherlands with her partner, Melissa Bos, 24. "It could have been us."
