A windy Tuesday morning in the Rockaways was the backdrop for a somber ceremony at the Flight 587 memorial.

American Airlines Flight 587 took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport on Nov. 12, 2001, headed for the Dominican Republic, but shortly after, it crashed in Belle Harbor, killing all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

"The truth is, 23 years later, I still mourn the loss of my father and sister," Teresita Corporan said through tears at the ceremony. She was just 14 when the flight crashed.

Mayor Eric Adams spoke at the ceremony, offering words of solace to the families of those who were lost on that day.

"The pain does not dissipate. Over 20-something years [later], it’s still as fresh and as new to the family members who feel the loss, and it is so important that we read over the names, because it allows us to hold on to those memories,” Adams said. “Flight 587 will always be remembered.”

"We are with you. We mourn with you," he added. "We remember with you. And we stand with you."

Since it was just two months after 9/11, the initial speculation was that the crash was another terror attack. However, investigators later determined the cause to be a combination of human error and a faulty tail on the plane.

"If we are gonna compare 9/11 with Flight 587, the magnitude is different," said Belkis Lora, who lost her brother Jose. "But the loss is the same. Because everybody lost a loved one."

Tuesday marked the first time some members of the Department of Correction, who helped in the recovery efforts on both 9/11 and at the Flight 587 crash site, attended the ceremony.

"It's emotional. It’ll never leave you," former correction officer Samuel Valle said. "But it gives you some solace to some degree that you brought remains back home to families that need some sort of what they call closure."

"I lost my sister and my best friend," said Yvette Careers, who added that 23 years on, "people are forgetting about [the crash]."

"They don’t come anymore," Careers said. 

But Lora said one thing remains constant: "Our commitment to remembering this day and honoring the memories."