TEACHER Eileen Rence of Appleton where she taught, nearby the Dutch windmill in Little Chute, a Brabant enclave in Wisconsin, was seriously ticked off. She had numerous students of Dutch descent, and on July 17, 1996 she was on a plane in Chicago waiting for a heavy thunderstorm to blow by. She had a layover in New York, because she was going to visit her daughter in Toulouse.
Eileen missed her connection, flight TWA 800 to Paris. On board of that Boeing: passengers with names like Wolters, Verhaeghe, De Lange, and Van Epps, descendants of Dirk van Eps from Groenlo. Their plane exploded a few minutes after takeoff, crashed into the ocean, all 230 occupants perished. Cause: a short circuit and leaking fumes from a full fuel tank.
Teacher Eileen, passenger 231, that night: “Thank God for bad weather.” She called home, said she was fine, then got on the next flight to Paris. Also TWA, because she still had a valid ticket.
