- CNN’s Kaitlan Collins teared up as she spoke to Andy Beyer, who lost his wife. Justyna, 42, and their 12-year-old daughter, Brielle, in the American Airlines tragedy on Wednesday, Jan. 29
- “I go through these moments of extreme sadness and tears and then I get flat and numb,” Andy said during the heartbreaking interview
- “I want people to have a memory of them so that they live on. So that’s why I wanted to share their story,” he said, before Collins also got emotional
CNN news anchor Kaitlan Collins got emotional as she spoke to a man who lost his wife and 12-year-old daughter in the American Airlines tragedy.
On Tuesday, Feb. 4, Collins, 32, interviewed Andy Beyer on her show The Source after he lost his daughter, Brielle, and her mother, Justyna, 42, in the crash after American Airlines flight 5342 collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, D.C. on the evening of Wednesday, Jan. 29.
The bodies of all 67 victims have since been recovered following the crash over the Potomac River, authorities have confirmed.
While speaking to Collins, Andy, who was emotional throughout the heartbreaking interview, said, “I go through these moments of extreme sadness and tears and then I get flat and numb. Then I feel guilty that I’m not just crying all the time, you know? It’s just been hard … really hard.”
“Thank you for doing so, Andy, and I think everyone would be really touched to hear from you, so thank you for coming on to talk about that,” the host responded.
Andy told Collins while discussing the moment he found out about the crash, “We were supposed to pick them up, me and my son, like we did from these trips all the time.”
“We were waiting for them nearby Reagan [Washington National Airport] in a parking lot, and we were texting with them right before they were supposed to land and the tracker said landed and the texts went from blue to green and firetrucks started going by and at that point, I knew something was wrong,” he continued.
Andy then called someone who was able to confirm it was Brielle and Justyna’s flight that had crashed.
Andy told Collins his 6-year-old son just yelled out “No!” at the time. “It really hurt. That’s how we found out before anything was really official. We already knew,” he recalled.
Paying tribute to Brielle, who was a member of the Skating Club of Northern Virginia, Andy called his daughter “a joy and a gift.”
“You just never think something like this could happen to you, and that it could be taken away from you,” he said.
He also spoke about Brielle facing cancer at just 4 months old, saying it was “like waking up to a nightmare,” but admitted “at least there was hope” and they “had this sense of relief” when she was cleared.
Andy described his wife Justyna as his “soulmate” and “the most wonderful mother,” telling Collins, “I’m going to miss her so much,” insisting they were “living our dream” with their family.
“You’re clearly both amazing parents, Andy, and I just want you to know that everyone is praying for you and thinking of you in this moment. I know that doesn’t help but everyone is really thinking of you guys,” Collins said.
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A GoFundMe set up to support Andy and his son by friends of the family had raised almost $131,400 as of Wednesday, Feb. 5. The page describes Brielle and Justyna’s passing as an “unimaginable loss” and says Justyna was a “devoted mother” who “sacrificed so much for her family, especially to provide for Brielle’s future, as she was highly talented and would have been an Olympic figure skater.”
