DAVID Duncan's pain was very obvious yesterday. He seemed to be slowly coming to grips with the reality that he would never see his younger sister, 29-year-old Annya Duncan, flash her winning smile again.

On Sunday, Annya Duncan died in a plane crash at VC Bird International Airport in Antigua after a Fly Montserrat twin-engine Britten-Norman Islander nose-dived on a wet runway just after take-off about 4:00 pm.

Her brother questioned why a pilot would have taken the risk to jet away when the weather conditions were seemingly unfavourable.

"Why would a pilot take off in those conditions, when a storm was brewing, when flying such a small aircraft?" he asked no one in particular.

"We were very close; people used to say we are twins," he said.

The mood inside the Duncans' modest Kingston home was understandably gloomy.

Annya's father, Coswell Duncan, was also deeply hurt by his daughter's tragic and untimely end but found time to urge the Jamaican Government to get involved in the issue as he strongly believed that negligence led to the demise of his last child.

"Somebody has to accept blame. We believe it is negligence and somebody should be blamed. This is serious and I would urge the Jamaican Government to get involved in this," the senior Duncan, who bore an empty look, said.

Annya Duncan had lived in the island of Montserrat for two years teaching Mathematics. Her mother, Grace Duncan, seemed proud of her daughter's achievement and, even though deeply hurt by her loss, reminisced on them.

"She did very well; all her students passed and they were sitting the Caribbean Examinations Council's CSEC exams for the first time," the saddened mother told the Jamaica Observer.

Students leaving secondary level schools in Montserrat only recently started sitting CSEC examinations as the British territory offered GCE Ordinary level tests.

Annya Duncan had recently renewed, for a year, her contract in the eastern Caribbean country but sadly her students will never get the chance to be tutored by her again.

"Words can't express... It's better felt than told," Grace Duncan said.

Annya's older sister Sabrina sat looking at photographs her deceased sibling had posted on her Facebook page.

"My younger sister, my only sister was one of the 'realest' persons you can find. She is caring, sharing, genuine. She is always encouraging, always advising. I am only hoping out of this can come something positive," Sabrina Duncan said.

A post-mortem is to be conducted on the body of Annya Duncan later this week.