funeral or woman who died on american airlines

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Racked by grief and pleading for a miracle, the daughter of a woman who died aboard an American Airlines flight filled a Brooklyn church with sad screams Saturday at her mother's funeral.

"Mommy, Mommy, please wake up!" cried Tatiana Saint-Victor, 25, clutching at her mother's casket in the aisle of St. Francis of Assisi Church.

"No! No! No!"
The anguished woman was joined by hundreds of mourners and a handful of protesters at the funeral Mass for Carine Desir, 44, who died Feb. 22 aboard Flight 896 from her native Haiti.

Desir, who suffered from diabetes and high blood pressure, experienced breathing problems about an hour into the flight and died in midair about 45 minutes later.

She was returning home from a mercy mission to help relatives in Haiti - a typical gesture from a woman recalled by loved ones as unfailingly generous.

"She was always helping people in the neighborhood," said her brother, Garry Moses of Manhattan.

"She was just an excellent person to everyone - at the church, at community events."
The protesters at the funeral and Desir's relatives believe the airline failed to adequately help her - a charge American has vehemently denied.

The airline says the flight attendants reacted quickly and tried to give her oxygen from tanks kept onboard - and that all the equipment was working.

A pediatrician traveling on the plane also used a defibrillator to try to revive her, but she was fading fast, the airline has said.
The Rev. Philip Parent, in his eulogy yesterday, said the death of the married mother of two was difficult to accept.

"Death has entered our experience suddenly and leaves many questions," he said. "Some of us may come with anger in our hearts, and some may seek truth and justice." who died mid-flight

BY JOTHAM SEDERSTROM and LARRY McSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS March 2008
lmcshane at nydailynews.com

Claude, March 24 2008, 12:01 PM

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