Math teacher-turned-lawyer died in Wichita flight crash ahead of overdue honeymoon trip
Sarah Lee Best, a former high school math teacher turned lawyer, reached out to one of her old students a couple years ago to congratulate her for graduating from nursing school.
The student, Alana Benson, told a Nashville TV station this week that her teacher had been shocked to see that she pursued nursing, “because I hated math,” in high school.
But Benson said that Best had no small part in making that career possible for her.
“Math was the most terrible subject that I had but that lady changed my whole perspective,” Benson said.
Benson got a shock of her own last week when she learned that the math teacher with “a very bubbly personality” was one of the 67 victims of the midair crash between an American Airlines plane and an Army helicopter in Washington, D.C.
“When I found out that it was Ms. Sarah Best that was on the plane, I immediately felt my heart drop,” Benson said. “I thought it was a coincidence — maybe it was somebody with the same name that looks similar. I was shocked. I was not expecting to know anybody on that plane.”
Best, 33, was a native of Clarksville, Tennessee.
She graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2013, with a double major in neuroscience and classical languages, and taught high school math for five years before graduating from the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School in 2021.
“An outstanding student who graduated summa cum laude, Best was also deeply engaged in various organizations and student groups across Penn Carey Law,” says a statement on the law school’s website.
“She served as the academic chair for the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association, a senior editor of the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, a representative for the Equal Justice Foundation Board, and a member of First Generation Professionals.”
Best met her husband of 10 years, Daniel Solomon, at Vanderbilt in Nashville where he teaches classical studies. He told The Washington Post that their shared love of the classics brought them together.
They were planning to take their long-delayed honeymoon in May — their anniversary is Feb. 21 — to Hawaii.
“I just can’t honestly imagine going through the rest of my life without her,” he told The Post. “She really touched the lives of anybody who got to know her.”
Best was an associate at Wilkinson Stekloff law firm in D.C. She had traveled to Kansas for work with her colleague, Elizabeth Anne Keys, and they were on their way home on a flight that departed from Wichita.
They both died in the crash; there were no survivors.
“We are heartbroken by this terrible tragedy. Liz and Sarah were cherished members of our firm — wonderful attorneys, colleagues, and friends,” the firm’s founder, Beth Wilkinson, said in a statement.
“Sarah joined us just last fall and quickly energized us all with her boundless curiosity, kindness, and intelligence. It is hard to imagine the firm without them. We are keeping them in our memories and their families in our thoughts and prayers.”
After the crash, Penn Carey Law school created a website in Best’s honor where people are leaving memories of her as a classmate, colleague and friend.
“Sarah was certainly a brilliant student, but she was also a wonderful friend and leader,” Felicia Lin, Vice Dean for Student Services and Dean of Students, says on the website.
“She was always looking for ways to help others, to serve her community, and to live a life of purpose. This is an unimaginable loss, but we are all better for having known Sarah.”
And there is this comment from a friend.
“I was lucky enough to spend two weeks working in chambers with Sarah. Not only was she beyond caring, helpful, and supportive during those two weeks, but our friendship continued after just those two weeks,” the friend wrote.
“She was always there to support me, even long after we shared an office space. That was the magic of Sarah: she was brilliant, and yet always willing to help someone and walk through something with the utmost care. She was an incredible lawyer, but an even more incredible person.”
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Diamond wrote that Best clerked for him from 2022-23.
“Her brilliance, ebullience, and kindness lit up chambers, much as it lit up the law school,” he wrote. “The tragedy of her unfulfilled promise is great. I hope the outpouring of regard and affection for Sarah brings some comfort to her family.”
Benson said she was “really happy” that her fellow students were able to let Best know what a great teacher she was.
“That made me feel better, to know that she knew that she was loved while she was here,” she said.
This story was originally published February 3, 2025 at 2:42 PM.
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