When you look through the names of the people who died aboard American Airlines Flight 587, some names immediately lead you to a detailed story. Others don't.
Ashot Melikjanyan is one of the latter.
He was not simply a passenger traveling from New York to the Dominican Republic on November 12, 2001. Before that final flight, Melikjanyan had spent years working as an actor in Armenia and the Soviet film industry before eventually moving to the United States with his family.
Today, however, relatively little is written about him in English.
Ashot Melikjanyan Was an Actor
Melikjanyan was born into a family involved in Armenian culture. His father, Zaven Melikjanyan, was an Honored Artist of the Armenian SSR, while his mother, Emma Vardanyan, was a People's Artist of the Armenian SSR. He was married to Naira Melikjanyan, née Sargsyan, according the Russian website Ruwiki. The couple had two children: a daughter, Mariam Melik-Janyan, born in 1981, and a son, Vahagn, born in 1985.
He studied at the Yerevan Art and Theater Institute and graduated in 1974 before beginning his acting career at the Yerevan Drama Theater.
His film career followed.
Melikjanyan appeared in several Soviet films, including Hayrik, Air Pedestrians and Without Much Risk. He also appeared in The Bad Good Man and other productions during his years as an actor.
His final film appearance came in Tosca in 1990.
There is a small comment on the Russian film website Kino-Teatr that gives a glimpse of how at least one viewer remembered him:
“A very handsome actor. It's a shame he didn't have much time. May he rest in peace.”
It is only a few words, but when there is so little information about someone's life online, even a simple comment like that can make the person behind the name feel a little less distant.
From Soviet Armenia to the United States
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 changed the direction of Melikjanyan's life.
He eventually moved to the United States with his family. His career also changed. Instead of continuing his work as an actor, he worked for a jewelry company and was involved with its branch in the Dominican Republic, according to biographical accounts.
That connection makes his final journey particularly striking.
On November 12, 2001, Melikjanyan boarded American Airlines Flight 587 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The Airbus A300 was headed for Santo Domingo, where he had business connections.
Shortly after takeoff, the aircraft crashed in Belle Harbor, Queens.
All 251 passengers and nine crew members aboard were killed. Five people on the ground also died.
Melikjanyan was 49.
One of the Less Remembered Victims of Flight 587
Melikjanyan's name is sometimes overshadowed by victims whose stories became more widely known after the crash.
Hilda Yolanda Mayol is a good example.
Mayol had survived the September 11 attacks after escaping the World Trade Center. Less than two months later, she was killed aboard Flight 587. That extraordinary connection between the two disasters has made her one of the victims whose story continues to be retold.
Melikjanyan's life has received far less attention.
That is somewhat surprising considering what he had already experienced. He had grown up in Soviet Armenia, built a career in theater and film, watched the Soviet Union disappear, moved with his family to America and started a new chapter of his life.
By 2001, the actor who had appeared on Soviet screens was living a very different life.
Then came Flight 587.
More Than a Name on a Passenger List
There are still gaps in what is publicly known about Melikjanyan.
Different sources spell his surname differently (Melikjanyan or Melikdzhanyan), and much of the available information about his life comes from film databases and biographical websites rather than detailed contemporary profiles. That makes it difficult to reconstruct every part of his life with certainty.
It is also why I think his story deserves a little more attention.
When an aviation disaster happens, the numbers quickly become familiar: 260 people aboard, 251 passengers, nine crew members, five people killed on the ground.
But every one of those numbers represented a person with a life that existed before the flight.
Ashot Melikjanyan had been an actor. He had a family. He had left one country and built a new life in another.
And before his name became part of the history of American Airlines Flight 587, he had already lived a life that crossed borders, careers and an entire political era.
That is the part of his story that is easiest to lose.
And perhaps the part worth remembering.
