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Air Florida Crash--30 Years Ago Today

  • Turned on Fox 5 News this morning and they're replaying the clips from the Air Florida crash, can't believe it's been 30 years. I remember UMD was closed that day, and then a Metro train crashed and killed three people as well. Everyone was in the dorms glued to the TV. The video is still pretty chilling (no pun intended) to this day.

    Edmonton was in town to play the Caps that night. My roomie and I made it to the game and there were maybe 5K people there. You could sit wherever you wanted and some of the concessions were free. Great game, ended in 6-6 tie.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAT5aBaHp8A

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz9JKtvC_wE&feature=related

    sugarmag

  • I remember it well and also can't believe it's been 30 years.

    "You are mentally a cat and each post is a red dot from a laser pointer." - MisterSmiley

    UnleashtheFurby ●

  • I'm too young to have seen this, but there is a really good set of videos on youtube about it. Talk about some fantastic rescues.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpHlgrbNLV4&feature=related

    PantsEnFuego

  • PantsEnFuego said...

    I'm too young to have seen this, but there is a really good set of videos on youtube about it. Talk about some fantastic rescues.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpHlgrbNLV4&feature=related

    Some serious balls on the people who jumped in the water.

    sugarmag

  • sugarmag said...

    Some serious balls on the people who jumped in the water.

    For sure... The helicopter guys should have been awarded Gold Lifesaving Medals, imo. Pilot had the effing skids in the water in the middle of a snow storm.

    PantsEnFuego

  • I remember that the next day Howard Stern called Air Florida's reservation department and asked them how much a ticket cost from National to the 14th street bridge

    ConGOTERPS ●

  • I remember my dad telling me it took him 6 hours to drive from Rosslyn to Severna Park that day.

    WhoIsMikeJones

  • I was listening when Howard made that call - damn, I feel old. Old enough to remember the bad jokes, also:

    What is the official fruit juice of Air Florida? Five-Alive
    What beverages were served on the plane? Coffee, Tea, and ice-water

    Also: the Potomac River used to freeze - when was the last time that happened?

    OttoMaddox ●

  • PantsEnFuego said...

    I'm too young to have seen this, but there is a really good set of videos on youtube about it. Talk about some fantastic rescues.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpHlgrbNLV4&feature=related

    I was only a few months old, but I've seen those amazing rescues on tv before. I either didn't realize or had forgotten since then that it happened in DC. Amazing stuff.

    Baldwin ●

  • ConGOTERPS said...

    I remember that the next day Howard Stern called Air Florida's reservation department and asked them how much a ticket cost from National to the 14th street bridge

    He got some time off for that one.

    sugarmag

  • sugarmag said...

    Some serious balls on the people who jumped in the water.

    One of the guys that jumped in the water rescued a couple of people, but drowned himself. Hero.

    OttoMaddox ●

  • PantsEnFuego said...

    For sure... The helicopter guys should have been awarded Gold Lifesaving Medals, imo. Pilot had the effing skids in the water in the middle of a snow storm.

    The current, the downdraft from the rotors, the cold, it's amazing they got anyone out of there. I think it took a couple weeks for them to find all the bodies.

    sugarmag

  • OttoMaddox said...

    One of the guys that jumped in the water rescued a couple of people, but drowned himself. Hero.

    I didn't see anything about that on wiki. Maybe you're thinking of this guy:

    The "sixth passenger," who had survived the crash and had repeatedly given up the rescue lines to other survivors before drowning, was later identified as 46-year-old bank examiner Arland D. Williams Jr. The repaired span of the 14th Street Bridge complex over the Potomac River at the crash site, which had been named the Rochambeau Bridge, was renamed the "Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge" in his honor.

    TerpBE

  • TerpBE said...

    I didn't see anything about that on wiki. Maybe you're thinking of this guy:

    The "sixth passenger," who had survived the crash and had repeatedly given up the rescue lines to other survivors before drowning, was later identified as 46-year-old bank examiner Arland D. Williams Jr. The repaired span of the 14th Street Bridge complex over the Potomac River at the crash site, which had been named the Rochambeau Bridge, was renamed the "Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge" in his honor.

    Yeah, that is probably it. I think at the time people [ie local news] didn't know if he was a passenger or one of the rescuers.

    OttoMaddox ●

  • The cockpit audio is scary and very sad:

    15:59:32 CAM-1 Okay, your throttles.

    15:59:35 [SOUND OF ENGINE SPOOLUP]

    15:59:49 CAM-1 Holler if you need the wipers.

    15:59:51 CAM-1 It's spooled. Real cold, real cold.

    15:59:58 CAM-2 God, look at that thing. That don't seem right, does it? Uh, that's not right.

    16:00:09 CAM-1 Yes it is, there's eighty.

    16:00:10 CAM-2 Naw, I don't think that's right. Ah, maybe it is.

    16:00:21 CAM-1 Hundred and twenty.

    16:00:23 CAM-2 I don't know.

    16:00:31 CAM-1 Vee-one. Easy, vee-two.
    ”
    16:00:39 [SOUND OF STICKSHAKER STARTS AND CONTINUES UNTIL IMPACT]

    16:00:41 TWR Palm 90 contact departure control.

    16:00:45 CAM-1 Forward, forward, easy. We only want five hundred.

    16:00:48 CAM-1 Come on forward....forward, just barely climb.

    16:00:59 CAM-1 Stalling, we're falling!

    16:01:00 CAM-2 This is it. We're going down, Larry....

    16:01:01 CAM-1 I know it!

    16:01:01 [SOUND OF IMPACT]

    OttoMaddox ●

  • Cockpit transcripts always freak me out.

    I remember that day so clearly. I was a senior in high school and we got out early that day because of the snow. When I walked into my house, my mother had the TV on and said, "There's been a plane crash in Washington." For some reason, I thought she meant Washington the state, so I just walked into the kitchen to get something to eat. Then I looked into the living room and saw the TV with local TV crews all over the place. What a crazy scene.

    The crazy thing about that day was there was a very bad Metro wreck that took place earlier.

    fletchterpz ●


  • The gridlock forced me to walk home from work that day. It took me about four hours to walk the six miles from around the Capitol to my home near Sibley hospital. My bus arrived another six hours later. It was so cool to NOT be in a car that day and turned out to be an adventure I'll remember the rest of my life.

    Terp75 ●

  • After reading about the Air Florida crash I've started a Wiki-quest reading about famous crashes/emergency landings, etc. Talk about some BAMF's on United Flight 232.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

    PantsEnFuego

  • IIRC, that same day they had the Metro crash on the Blue Orange line. I don't remember if there were any fatalities but it was an all around sad day in the nations capital.

    I had to walk home from New Carrollton Metro to Bladensburg in the snow.

    kool ●

  • PantsEnFuego said...

    After reading about the Air Florida crash I've started a Wiki-quest reading about famous crashes/emergency landings, etc. Talk about some BAMF's on United Flight 232.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

    I remember I was at the beach for that one and we were watching it all unfold w/in minutes of the actual accident. Amazing footage.

    Oddly enough, we were also at the beach for the TWA 800 off Long Island.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_800

    And the JFK, Jr. plane crash.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy,_Jr._airplane_crash

    Lesson is, don't fly during the 3rd week in July while I'm vacationing in the Outer Banks.

    Im ready for aa 5th of vodica to end my feels.

    JJBittenbinder ●

  • My friend's dad was two cars back from where it impacted the 14th St. bridge. He won't talk about it.

    PaulUMD ●

  • JJBittenbinder said...

    I remember I was at the beach for that one and we were watching it all unfold w/in minutes of the actual accident. Amazing footage.

    Oddly enough, we were also at the beach for the TWA 800 off Long Island.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_800

    And the JFK, Jr. plane crash.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy,_Jr._airplane_crash

    Lesson is, don't fly during the 3rd week in July while I'm vacationing in the Outer Banks.

    I'm 100% sure we were at the beach for JFK jrs plane and there's a good chance we were there for flight 800. My little brother was in a karate class with a kid on the flight and they gave him a black belt posthumously.

    Baldwin ●

  • PantsEnFuego said...

    After reading about the Air Florida crash I've started a Wiki-quest reading about famous crashes/emergency landings, etc. Talk about some BAMF's on United Flight 232.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

    I remember that being one of the first videos ever captured of when a passenger plane actually crashed. Absolutely freaked me out.

    Air Florida was probably lucky to crash into the river, full load of fuel and no fire. I remember one of the rescued people was in bad shape from swallowing a bunch but made it. i had a snowy flight a couple years after that one and remember being glued to the widow watching the de-icing process. The Air Florida crash changed all the policies around de-icing.

    The Delta crash in Dallas due to wind shear is the one that probably scared me the most.

    sugarmag

  • My Dad was just leaving the 14th street bridge. In a carpool. Guy in the back seat said....literally seconds before the crash "that plane looks too low". Figure another few second the other way....they are on the span and get wipe out by the plane.

    rthhokie92

  • PantsEnFuego said...

    After reading about the Air Florida crash I've started a Wiki-quest reading about famous crashes/emergency landings, etc. Talk about some BAMF's on United Flight 232.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232

    Michael Matz who trained Barbaro to his Kentucky Derby win saved a bunch of kids on that flight

    wisconsin terp

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