Drive-By Memorial Service Sees Scores Pay Tribute To 4 Who Lost Their Lives In Helicopter Crash

CHARLOTTE AMALIE — Antilles School remembered a fallen classmate with a drive-by memorial service Thursday evening at the St. Thomas private school.

The memorial was for senior Tyler Yannone, who was killed in a helicopter crash February 15 in Botany Bay in St. Thomas along with his parents, Daniel Yannone and Neisha Zahn and pilot Maria Rodriguez.

For more than two hours, Antilles’ students and their parents, along with teachers and staff — as well as students and parents from other schools on St. Thomas — visited the memorial, which was created by Tyler’s classmates last week.

Neisha Zahn (left) Tyler Yannone (middle) and Daniel Yannone (right)

The memorial included photos of Tyler and his parents, hand-written messages, flowers and even a stuffed panda wearing a pair of sunglasses.

It would expand throughout the evening as mourners brought more flowers, and cards.

Some wrote messages on several poster-sized cards that were set up at the memorial.

Margaret McConnell, a senior at Antilles School, signs a card in front of a memorial set up in the parking lot of the St. Thomas private school on Frenchman Bay Road in St. Thomas. McConnell, like Yannone, have been classmates at Antilles since age 3.
Tyler Yannone on Facebook.