‘You’re not gone, you’re just not here’: Friends remember Maryland man killed in D.C. crash

Alexander “Alex” Huffman, 34, touched many lives in his circle of southern Maryland family and friends — beyond his hunting buddies who were also among the 67 people killed when American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Huffman was flying out of Wichita after a Kansas waterfowl hunting trip with friends Jonathan Boyd, Tommy Clagett, Steve Johnson, Charlie McDaniel, Jesse Pitcher and Mikey Stovall.

He leaves behind a son, a daughter, a brother, a mother and a father, and a wife. And others who are trying to make sense of a senseless tragedy.

“Words, I have none,” Kayla Huffman, Alex’s wife, wrote on Facebook. “My heart is shattered, as a wife, as a mother. 5.5 years of love, now a lifetime of sorrow. The future is unknown without you in it. And I don’t think I’ll ever be whole again. Thankful for you, your memories, and your love. I will love you now, always, and forever.”

“This morning, instead of waking my son up for school, I woke him to tell him that his dad was in an accident and likely would not survive,” Ashley Viering, the mother of Huffman’s son, said in a Facebook post the day after the crash.

“I will never understand life and loss,” she wrote. “I will never get why, out of so many horrible fathers, why did we have to lose a good one? I just never imagined having to navigate life with a grieving child.”

“To the loving father, husband, friend and hard working man that he was,” she wrote. “I’ll miss and love you forever.”

“I am completely devastated! My heart has been fractured and will never heal from this. I LOVE YOU MY SON! Please pray for our family and everyone effected by this tragedy,” Jeff Huffman, Alex’s father, shared on Facebook.

Joan Huffman, Alex’s mother, shared a link to a GoFundMe page to help support Huffman’s wife, Kayla, and his two children, Rowen and Hadley.

“If you can help to support our daughter-in-law and our grandchildren, we appreciate it more than words,” she wrote. “If you unable to, we completely understand, but please share. Thank you in advance. We appreciate the tremendous outpouring of love received in an absolutely horrible time.”

Daniel Littleford described Huffman as a friend “that became family” and lamented that they had not been able to hunt together while Huffman was alive. But he expressed hope that there’s duck hunting in the afterlife.

“We always talked about getting out one morning to hunt but things would always come up,” Littleford wrote on Facebook. “Now we will never get to experience that with each other.”

“You were the friend to keep everyone laughing all night long,” Littleford said. “You were one of the greatest guys I’ve ever met. . . . Alex Huffman I will miss you deeply buddy... save me a spot in one of those duck blinds.”

Phillip Falcone, a Waldorf business owner and tattoo artist, shared a photo on Facebook of him with his arm around Huffman.

“FOREVER YOUNG is how you’ll live in the hearts and minds of those who know and love you,” Falcone wrote. “Alex there are no words. You’re not gone, you’re just not here. You made your family proud. You did good. Thank you for being my friend.”

Brady Mechanical Services Inc., said on its company Facebook page that many of the men lost in the plane crash were “truly some of the most skilled young men in the trades, like my buddy Alex Huffman that we were just messaging back and forth on Tuesday about putting our heads together to get an oil furnace dialed in when he got back this weekend.”

“Where do I start, it’s just a huge loss,” Chris Yarbrough, a fellow steamfitter, posted. “Even if we missed a couple months, we always picked up like no time was missed. The shenanigans on the golf course were always a trip. I know I don’t just speak for myself when I say me and the boyz will always love and miss you my Dude. We will always look out for Kayla Huffman and the kiddos.”

Nate Freeman said that Huffman was his cousin and constantly pushed him “to do my best and told me to always chase whatever dreams are in my heart.”

“Not everything in life is always fair but I’ll always love you Alex Huffman and I’ll cherish every memory from childhood and miss every phone call from adulthood,” Freeman wrote. “Thank you for always believing in me when I couldn’t and thank you for being there whenever I needed you I wish I could’ve told you I loved you one last time.”

Cody Parker shared that he and Huffman were “childhood buddies” who bonded through soccer, skateboarding and roller hockey.

“For years, I practically lived with the Huffmans,” Parker wrote on Facebook. “Sleepovers just about every week filled with horror movies, WWE, skateboarding, street hockey, video games, etc.”

“He was one of those guys who seemed to be naturally gifted at everything he touched, and yet he always strived to be better,” Parker wrote. “As a parent, when I think of what kind of people I want my boys being friends with, Alex would be the shining example. Just a good kid with a good family, moral, focused, and committed to doing his absolute best at all times.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help Huffman’s wife and two children. It can be found at https://shorturl.at/4zU82.