Growing up in the South and being a key civil rights figure, often on the front lines of conflict, Andrew Young has faced the possibility of death many times.
Just not this weekend in the Bahamas.
Young and his wife, Carolyn, spent much of Sunday and Monday fielding calls and squelching rumors that he had been slated to be aboard a plane that crashed Sunday in route from Nassau to Grand Bahama. That crash took the life of Myles Munroe, the leader of Bahamas Faith Ministries International, and eight others.
Police have not officially released the victims’ identities, but Bahamian Prime Minister Perry Christie said Munroe’s wife, Ruth, was on the flight. According to several Bahamian news outlets, the ministry’s senior vice president and pastor, Richard Pinder, as well as youth ministers Lavard and Rudel Parks and their young son, Johannan, were also on the plane.
Several news organizations also reported that Young had backed out of the flight at the last second because of misgivings about weather conditions. Those reports variously attributed the information to a family friend or a spokesman “who didn’t want to be named.”
In a statement released Monday shortly before he was set to deliver a keynote address at Munroe’s Global Leadership Forum, Young said he “was not scheduled to be on the flight carrying Dr. Munroe, his wife, and other passengers and never planned to be. Any reports to the contrary are incorrect.”
Reached at their southwest Atlanta home Monday morning, Carolyn Young was more direct.
People who knew that her husband was attending the conference and weren’t able to reach him “put two and two together and got nine,” she said. “He never said he would be on Myles Munroe’s plane. People just assumed that.”
Carolyn Young, who said she has gotten very little sleep in between fielding countless phone calls, said her husband will remain in Grand Bahama until Wednesday to complete his speaking engagements and honor the life of his good friend Munroe. “It’s just devastating,” she said. “He was a great man.”
She said she had thought her husband might cut his visit short, “but he said, ‘No, we’re going to carry on. People came here from all over.’”
Candia Dames, managing editor of the Nassau Guardian, said Munroe’s death rocked the nation. “I, like so many other Bahamians, am in total shock,” said Dames, a Clark Atlanta University graduate. She said Munroe was in her newsroom last Tuesday trying to arrange an interview between her and Young.
“There is a dark cloud over the nation,” Dames said. “Everywhere you go people are deeply saddened. This is great loss for the Bahamas.”
Carolyn Young said that almost as soon as the news hit of Munroe’s death, people started calling about whether she or her husband had been involved. The couple had been in the Bahamian capital of Nassau since last Thursday for another conference.
On Sunday morning the Youngs, along with two assistants, were driven to Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau. The skies were clear, Carolyn Young said.
Andrew Young took a 40-minute flight to Grand Bahama, landing at about 2 p.m. He immediately called his wife, who was about to depart on an international flight back to Atlanta.
“He called to tell me that he had landed and was headed over to the conference,” Carolyn Young said. “After being home for an hour, I got the news that a plane had gone down. Andy called me and said he was fearful that it was Myles’ plane.”
Munroe’s Lear 36 Executive Jet had taken off from Nassau at 4:07 p.m. and crashed while attempting to land at 5:10 p.m. at Grand Bahama International Airport, the Department of Civil Aviation said.
According to the Bahamas Tribune, Munroe’s jet clipped the side of a crane at the Grand Bahama Shipyard and “exploded in mid-air.”
Government officials in the Bahamas say extreme weather may have played a role on Munroe’s death.
Carolyn Young said that when word reached the conference that Munroe and other ministry leaders had died, Andrew Young helped lead others in prayer and song.
“Andy doesn’t fear death,” Carolyn Young said. “He let them know that death is not the end.”
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