Flight attendant killed in DC crash was youth group alum

One of the flight attendants killed in the recent plane crash in Washington, D.C., was an alumnus of a Jewish youth group with a passion for travel and a talent for comedy.

Ian Epstein, one of the four flight attendants on American Eagle Flight 5342, was an alumnus of the pluralist Jewish youth group BBYO, the group posted to Facebook on Thursday. He is one of 67 victims of the crash Wednesday night over the Potomac River, in which an army helicopter collided with a passenger plane.

"Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the loss of Ian Epstein, an AZA alum, who tragically lost his life in the plane crash at Reagan National Airport yesterday. Ian was a proud member of our Movement and attended our summer leadership camps at Perlman in 1987," BBYO posted, referring to the organization's Pennsylvania camp.

Commenters shared recollections of him, including one who called him "always a lively, high-spirited person." Several said they had known him and his sister from their time with the youth group.

Epstein's love for seeing new places was clear from his online posts. According to his LinkedIn profile, before becoming a flight attendant in 2020 for the travel opportunities the job offered, he founded a travel agency and worked as an RV salesman. According to an Instagram account he kept active around a decade ago, Epstein lived in an RV at one point and posted photos from his destinations, writing in one post, "Travel as much as you can as far as you can as long as you can, life is not meant to be spent in one place."

"He died doing what he loved," his ex-wife Debi Epstein told the Queen City News. He was a father of two, and his daughter is getting married in eight weeks, Debi said. "That was just our last conversation with him and her, was about the wedding," she said.

Epstein was known for his sense of humor, and since his name was publicized, a video of him delivering jokes and one-liners during in-flight announcements on a regional flight to Charlotte has gone viral on TikTok, with more than a million views.

"There is absolutely positively not to be one ounce of mopey-ness or groaning on this plane," he says at one point. "Welcome aboard, everybody, we're glad you're here."