Congregation Honors IU Plane Crash Victims

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A special Sunday service helped grieving students and faculty say goodbye to five music students killed in a plane crash.

Hundreds of people packed a Bloomington church Sunday to remember the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music graduate students.

One of the victims, Zachary Novak, was heavily involved in the First United Methodist Church, where he directed three choirs and coordinated worship services, 6News' Tanya Spencer reported.

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Slideshow: Remembering The Victims

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The congregation honored Novak and the other four students, Robert Samels, Garth Eppley, Georgina Joshi and Chris Carducci. All five died when the plane they were in went down just short of the Monroe County Airport late Thursday night.

Novak's friends said he was most vibrant when working with children.

"His spirit was contagious. I don't know of anybody who worked with him who didn't just love him," said the Rev. George Purnell, of First United Methodist Church.

Sunday's scheduled performance of Mozart's "Coronation Mass" was dedicated to Novak's memory. Parishioners said it was a fitting tribute to a man whose passions were church and music.

"Music is such an emotional means to worship. You could see the emotion in our choir members and in many of the members of the orchestra because they were fellow students of his at our Jacobs School of Music at IU," said Kirk White, a member of the congregation.

The church held four services Sunday in Novak's honor, with about 800 people in attendance.