Collision recalls 1982 Air Florida crash into the 14th Street Bridge

The midair collision Wednesday night between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter is the most severe air travel accident in Washington since a passenger jet crashed into the 14th Street Bridge just moments after takeoff on a snowy January day 43 years ago.
The devastating Air Florida Flight 90 crash on Jan. 13, 1982, and subsequent rescue efforts in the ice-covered Potomac River transfixed Washington and the nation, raised questions about flight safety and ultimately lead to regulations and procedures to address a string of crashes caused by ice buildup on planes.
Investigations following the 1982 crash pointed to pilot error by a crew that was not accustomed to flying in icy conditions. A snowstorm earlier that day had dropped a half-foot of snow on Washington and forced the airport to close until noon. After reopening, frigid temperatures hampered deicing efforts at the airport as planes lined up to depart.
By the time Air Florida Flight 90 began its takeoff later that afternoon, the combination of bitter cold and numerous pilot errors had sealed its fate. As the plane accelerated down the runway the first officer could be heard saying, “That don’t seem right,” several times.
The Boeing 737 took off but only reached an altitude of 350 feet before stalling. It crashed into the bridge at 4:01 p.m., just 30 seconds after takeoff.
Seventy passengers and four crew members on the plane perished. The crash also took the lives of four people in cars on the bridge.
Four passengers and one crew member were rescued from the icy waters of the Potomac and survived.
A passenger on the plane, Arland D. Williams Jr., died after being pulled into the water while helping others out of the Potomac. And Lenny Skutnik, a federal employee who dived into the water to rescue a passenger, was heralded as a hero and invited by President Ronald Reagan to the State of the Union address.
Eventually, recommendations from the NTSB and new rules set by the Federal Aviation Administration - combined with better de-icing technologies and procedures - helped to dramatically improve safety.
The Air Florida crash was one of two major transportation tragedies that day in Washington. A Metro train derailed near the Smithsonian station, killing three people and injuring dozens.
The crash wasn’t the first to strike the airways above Washington. In 1949, a war surplus P-38 Lightning, on a test flight before being delivered to the Bolivian Air Force, crashed into an Eastern Airlines DC-4 carrying 51 passengers and a crew of four. The Eastern plane was approaching the Washington airport for a landing when it was struck by the military plane.
The P-38 pilot survived the crash but everyone aboard the Eastern Airlines plane died. At the time it was the nation’s deadliest civil airline disaster.
Among those killed were Helen E. Hokinson, a New Yorker cartoonist, and Maine congressman George J. Bates.