AIT mourns death of Fulbright alumni killed in DC plane crash

Taipei, Feb. 4 (CNA) The United States' de facto embassy in Taiwan on Tuesday mourned the death of Kiah Duggins, a recipient of a U.S. government-funded scholarship program to teach English in Taiwan in 2017 who was killed in a plane crash in Washington, D.C. last month.

On Jan. 29, PSA Airlines Flight 5342, operated as American Airlines Flight 5342, collided mid-air with a U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River, near the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia.

All 67 people on board the two aircraft were killed in the crash, including the 30-year-old Duggins.

In a Tuesday Facebook post titled "Honoring the Life and Legacy of Kiah Duggins", the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said it joins Fulbright Taiwan in mourning the tragic death of Duggins.

"From 2017-2018, Kiah served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in an elementary school in Guanshan in Taitung County. There, Kiah co-taught English in a school of 350 students, many from indigenous tribal communities."

After teaching in Taiwan, Duggins attended Harvard Law School and planned to become a law professor at Howard University.

"As a teacher, Kiah wrote that her goal was to create 'joy, light, and learning in the classroom,' and we know that she touched many lives here in Taiwan. We express our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and colleagues," AIT added.

In a separate statement issued by Fulbright Taiwan, the organization said Duggins was an ETA "dedicated to making her students more confident in using English."

A graduate of Wichita State University, where she majored in Spanish, economics, and international business, her university professors described her as "phenomenal, bright, and passionate," it said.

In her Fulbright application, Kiah wrote about her commitment to international education and her values of "entering uncomfortable situations with the humility it takes to listen and create relevant, reconciliatory learning environments..."

"She lived these values during her Fulbright year in Taiwan," Fulbright Taiwan added.