LAKE MILTON, Ohio (WKBN) — Sunday marked 30 years since Flight 427 fell from the sky above Hopewell Township in Beaver County during a routine flight from Chicago to Pittsburgh.
127 passengers and five crew members were killed when the Boeing 737 nosedived into a wooded hillside. It took four and a half years for federal investigators to determine a valve struck and jammed a rudder, causing the crash.
The crash took the lives of a Poland couple Anthony and Paula Rich and their unborn baby. Since the accident, the Ricchiuti and Rubino family gathers on Sept. 8 each year to honor and keep their memory alive. This year, they gathered at a family member’s house in Lake Milton.
“The memory never fades. The pain faded, and the hurt faded. We all think of them in happy ways now,” said Anthony’s father, Robert Ricchiuti. “It’s every day you think of them, but many times during the year, we’re together. Our two families are together, and even though we’re not related, we are now.”
“They’ve been gone longer than they were with us, which is something that I never really thought about before,” said Phyllis Ricchiuti, Anthony’s mother.
They tell stories of their love and carry the Rich family with them every day. Five of the women in the family wear pendants made from bracelets found in Paula’s belongings after the crash.
“On this date, we all go to the cemetery at the time of the accident every year. And the grandkids now are understanding the experience that we’ve all been through. Even though they never knew them, I think they love them just as much as we do,” Phyllis said.
The couple had just celebrated their second wedding anniversary and were returning home from a visit to Italy with Paula’s parents, Fernando and Rose Rubino. Anthony and Paula were on separate flights from her parents. Anthony was a pilot for the airline.
“I go to the cemetery every day and I say, ‘Hello Tony and Paula,’ you know, every day,” Fernando said. “Now, she rests in peace, and Tony and the baby — it is what it is. We keep going and we stay strong.”
The family described the couple as very much in love. They were set up on a blind date by Anthony’s mother, which turned into more — an engagement, wedding and their pregnancy.
“[Paula] was always had a beautiful smile, and I like her hair — [she] had a lot of curly hair, know you, beautiful girl,” Phyllis said.
To honor their memory, the family created the Rich Center for Autism in Youngstown.
“And out of this tragedy, not only did nothing bad happen to our family, but something good happened — and that’s the Rich Center,” Robert said.
Since 1995, the Rich Center has helped their family and many children with autism reach their full potential.
“When I see that we’re changing the lives of so many families, they were a part of it,” Phyllis said.
Following their deaths, Anthony’s father went back to their ancestral name Ricchiuti because Anthony and Paula talked about making the change. It was another way to honor their life and legacy.
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