The UK Arboretum is now home to a sculpture that commemorates victims of the Comair Flight 5191 crash, which happened five years ago Saturday.

The memorial event, held Saturday morning, unveiled the metal sculpture that consists of 49 birds, each bird representing a victim of the crash.

On Aug. 27, 2006, the plane took off from the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport and crashed around 6 a.m. The only survivor was co-pilot James Polehinke.

Sue Byrd, whose son Brian Byrd died in the crash, described the birds as swooping toward the sky.

“Forty-nine spirits all headed to heaven at the same time together,” she said.

The sculpture, created by Douwe Blumberg, contains the victims’ names engraved at the base. Byrd said each victim’s family was given the opportunity to put a memento of their lost one in a cylinder, which was welded inside the bird.

Dr. Ray Garman, co-chair of the Flight 5191 Commission, estimated that more than 500 people attended the service.

“When the main crash occurred, the then-governor and the then-mayor appointed a commission to try to come up with an appropriate memorial for the 49 lost,” said Garman, who is also an associate professor in the College of Public Health and the chairman of the Aviation Museum of Kentucky’s board at the Blue Grass Airport.

The sculpture had been developed and chosen about two years ago, Garman said.

Multiple people spoke at the service, including family members of the victims, Mayor Jim Gray, Gov. Steve Beshear and Deborah Hersman, the lead invesigator of the crash and chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Byrd also gave a speech and said she just wanted to speak from her heart.

“It was a humbling experience,” she said. “I’m not a public speaker, I don’t usually do this.”

Byrd spoke about not having regrets.

“Our loved ones were here one minute and gone the next, and they’ve been gone for so long,” she said. “We need to always remember to take time for our loved ones.”

Garman said the service went well, and after the ceremony the family members gathered at the UK Good Barn.

“The weather was beautiful,” he said. “The memorial was quite meaningful.”

Byrd has also been on the memorial commission since it began, and said a lot of planning and countless hours were put into the service.

“The entire hour we were there, everything was picture-perfect and elegant. Not one detail would I have changed about anything,” she said, and described the event as breathtaking. There was sadness, she said, but also happiness and everyone was “filled with so much love and uplifting.”

Now, she said, the community and families of lost ones can go to a peaceful place. Though it has been a long journey, it has been worth it.

“It just brought closure to a lot of people,” Byrd said.

Matthew Deffendall, a UK faculty member, was on an afternoon flight at Blue Grass Airport the day the of the crash. He was headed to New Orleans for his grandfather’s funeral and said he almost chose Flight 5191.

“Before we finalized payment, my wife looked at me and said, ‘Do we really want to get up that early?’” he said, which is why they changed the flight. “I feel like everyday how close we could’ve been to that flight.”

Deffendall wasn’t aware of the accident until his mother told him that morning.

“I was just shocked,” he said. “It was very eerie pulling up to the airport. I’ve never seen so many police,” he said.

Deffendall was on one of the first flights out of the Blue Grass Airport that day.

“You felt like you were walking into something from a movie, and it was really sad,” he said. The airport was filled with police cars, including the FBI and SWAT teams, and Red Cross disaster volunteers, Deffendall said.

At that point, it was still unclear whether the accident was an act of terrorism.

Deffendall remembers flying back and seeing the giant flashing “X” that was on the runway where Flight 5191 took off from, warning planes not to go that way.

“I think back to that time and how just momentary decisions change our lives,” he said.

When visiting the memorial, remember these UK community members:

• Jon Hooker, former UK baseball player. Hooker played for UK baseball from 1998 to 2011. He and his wife, Scarlett Parsely, were married just hours before they boarded the flight. They were headed to California for their honeymoon.
• Larry Turner, former associate dean in the College of Agriculture and former director of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service. After his death, his wife Lois Turner commemorated his life by setting up the Larry W. Turner Memorial Fund, which helps support the Turner Leadership Academy in the College of Agriculture. The Academy was set up to honor Turner; it provides framework for undergraduate students to enhance their leadership skills, according to the Academy’s website.
• Homer and Diane Combs, parents of former UK student Andrea Combs. Andrea Combs was studying fiber arts at the time of the crash.
• Patrick Smith, receiver of the UK 2010 Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award and former UK employee.  Smith was a Habitat for Humanity activist, serving on the Habitat for Humanity International board of directors.