The Orphans of Flight 723
At 60, Michelle Brennen opened a box of clippings and a battered passenger manifest for [[Delta Flight 723]], which crashed near [[Logan Airport]] in 1973, and set about locating survivors’ families. Over two years she found nearly all of the 89 passengers’ relatives, invited them to a 50th‑anniversary gathering at the airport and urged conversations about loss, blame and memory. The article recounts the crash — a fast, low approach; a malfunctioning flight director; dense fog — and the long legal and emotional fallout, including how children of the dead, like Michelle whose father [[Michael Longchamp]] died, carried unspoken grief. Responses ranged from gratitude to anger; a fragile reconciliation occurs when the pilot’s granddaughter, who says her grandfather [[John N. Streil]] deserves more than “pilot error,” is hugged by many attendees.