disaster audio

    A song on Beyonce’s latest album has upset families of the victims of the 1986 Challenger shuttle* disaster.

    The love song “XO” opens with a six-second audio sample that originally was broadcast in the immediate aftermath* of the January 28, 1986 explosion that took the lives of all seven crew members on board. “Flight controllers here looking very carefully at the situation. Obviously a major malfunction,” now-retired NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt said as the nation watched the shuttle explode 73 seconds after liftoff* from the Kennedy Space Center.

    June Scobee Rodgers, the widow of Challenger commander Dick Scobee, said she was “disappointed” to hear of Beyonce’s use of the clip. “The moment included in this song is an emotionally difficult one for the Challenger families, colleagues and friends. We have always chosen to focus not on how our loved ones were lost, but rather on how they lived and how their legacy lives on today.”

    Beyonce was quick to issue an apology, telling ABC News in a statement: “My heart goes out to the families of those lost in the disaster. The song was recorded with the sincerest intention to help heal those who have lost loved ones and to remind us that unexpected things happen, so love and appreciate every minute that you have with those who mean the most to you. The songwriters included the audio in tribute to the unselfish work of the Challenger crew with hope that they will never be forgotten.”(SD-Agencies)