Providence allowed airport chaplains to be available to help Delta crash victims, priest says

TORONTO (OSV News) -- Father John Mullins wasn't at his normal posting at Toronto's Pearson International Airport when his phone delivered the breaking news of the Delta Air Lines crash as it unfolded.

"I actually saw an article on Daily Mail in Britain about this accident and I said, ‘What date is that from? Is this just disinformation?' But when I had seen that it was happening right now, I phoned Father Eduardo Lopez who said he had been summoned by the airport to help out the victims of the crash. I dropped everything and I went there," said Father Mullins, senior chaplain at the Toronto Airport Catholic Chaplaincy.

Amid the chaos, Father Mullins said, it was the hand of providence that allowed the chaplaincy team to be present during the Feb. 17 crash at Pearson, where a jet crashed during its landing before flipping over in a fiery wreck on the tarmac.

Miraculously, there were no fatalities as all 76 passengers and four crew members survived the crash landing. Twenty-one people were reported injured. Since the crash, at least two passengers have filed lawsuits against Delta Air Lines.

Father Lopez "could have been off in another terminal or walking around but he picked up the call in his office at Terminal 1 where he was called to show up and be a part of the operation," Father Mullins told The Catholic Register, Canada's national Catholic newspaper based in Toronto.

"Had I taken a siesta at that moment or not looked at my social media, we would never have gotten there. All these things aligned and so the hand of God was there for sure."

Father Mullins pointed to Pearson's mock emergency exercise two years ago, one which simulated a plane crash accident, as one of the reasons operations were able to run so smoothly during the live incident.

"The great story in all of this is that all those people who were a part of that preparation two years ago, they put it into practice and the heroes of this story are the first responders. They showed incredible quickness. The crew got everybody out of the plane in five minutes and within seconds, even before they all got out, responders were putting out the fire," he said. "It took a few minutes to get them ushered over to safety, it was perfectly coordinated and when I got there, I said ‘This is exactly what we did in the mock up two years ago.'"

Both Father Lopez and Father Mullins spoke with passengers on the flight not long after arriving, bringing encouragement and consolation following the accident.

"We had a role there to play because we are in the world, but not of the world and we are in the airport but not of the airport, and so we could really connect with the passengers in a personal way," Father Mullins said.

He said his and Father Lopez's efforts were "vital yet minor" when compared to the efforts made by all the organizations such as police, fire crew and paramedics, Canadian Border Services, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and even retailers who supplied food for the passengers.

"Our presence to all was our contribution as we were in solidarity with both the rescue efforts and with the powerlessness of the passengers," he said.

The Pearson Airport Catholic Chaplaincy has been a part of the emergency plan of the Archdiocese of Toronto for just over 45 years.

"Beginning in 1978, Msgr. Paul Healy really drilled the organization to be a part of the airport community and to serve that community, whatever their needs are, especially in these kind of situations," he said.

While the ministry provides Mass 365 days a year in chapels located in Terminal 1 and Terminal 3, its true strength comes from being able to meet people where they are through comfort and faith.

"?Father Eduardo and I talked about what had happened very briefly because once I arrived it was about what we could do to serve the passengers there. He got on one bus with the passengers, and I got on another bus with the other passengers -- we were able to be there and shepherd them during that time," he said.

Though such incidents are rare -- Father Mullins noted the last time a similar accident happened was in 2005 when Air France Flight 358 overshot a runway -- the airport chaplaincy continues to be a vital part of the airport community through both good times and bad, whether through the daily support of travellers and airport staff or the abrupt shepherding needed in times of crisis.

"We are a fulfillment of what Msgr. Brad Massman and Msgr. Healy discovered as a great need and we are living the promise of that need by being pastorally present for the last 45 years. We will always be faithful to bringing the world to Christ and Christ to the world," Father Mullins said.