Rev. Irvin Moore, an American Baptist minister and chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

As the sun rose on a gray, damp August morning last year, Comair Flight 5191 started down the runway at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Ken., with 47 passengers and three crew members bound for Atlanta. The plane accelerated in preparation for take off, then ran out of runway. Struggling for altitude, it plummeted to earth less than a minute after takeoff, bursting into flame on impact, killing 49 of the 50 people on board.

Rev. Irvin Moore—an American Baptist minister and chaplain at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center—was blissfully unaware of the unfolding tragedy in those early morning hours. That would soon change, however.

Just six months before, Chaplain Moore had completed a course qualifying him as a member of the Spiritual Response Team—a partnership between nine professional chaplain organizations and the American Red Cross. Team members are sent to offer emotional and spiritual help when major disasters occur anywhere in the country. Moore says, "When I saw the misery of the victims of Katrina, I said to myself, 'I ought to be there.'" That led him to enroll in the training course.

Moore's call came the day after the crash: The Spiritual Response Team director instructed him to report to the Bluegrass American Red Cross Headquarters at once. 

As he drove the two and a half hours to Lexington on his first assignment, his thoughts turned to the families of those who died in the crash. A chaplain for more than 20 years, he was no stranger to death but, until that time, he had never experienced violent and multiple deaths. 

It was a daunting prospect and he wondered if he would be up to the task. "Was I ready?  Could I do this? These were just some of the questions racing through my mind." He reminded himself that he was trained and God would be with him through "what would be unimaginable."

Moore joined six other team members at the American Red Cross headquarters, and several of them decided to view the crash site prior to accompanying families there. The nightmarish scene of twisted metal—all that was left of the plane—scattered along the scorched landscape of Lexington, Kentucky's farm country was "horrific," Moore says.

A world away from his normal surroundings, witnessing the charred remains of the country's worst commercial air disaster in five years, he immediately thought of the effect this sight would have on the families. "I thought it was more than the human eye could take in—more than the human brain could understand." 

When team members boarded the bus later with families, it was a quiet ride. Some wept softly; others simply stared out the windows. At the site, Chaplain Moore stood ready to offer whatever comfort he could as he walked among the bereaved, respecting their grief and approaching only when asked. Some families invited prayer and he prayed with them, not knowing what he could possibly say to ease their pain, relying on God to give him the right words. 

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