Air Florida Flight 90
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 Salvage operations on January 19, 1982 of the wreckage |
|
| Summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | January 13, 1982 |
| Type | Crash on takeoff |
| Site | Washington, D.C. |
| Fatalities | 78 (4 on ground) |
| Injuries | 10 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Boeing 737-222 |
| Operator | Air Florida |
| Tail number | N62AF |
| Passengers | 74 |
| Crew | 5 |
| Survivors | 5 |
Air Florida Flight 90 was an Air Florida flight of a Boeing 737-222 airliner that crashed into the 14th Street Bridge across the Potomac River near Washington, D.C. on January 13, 1982 immediately after takeoff in a severe snowstorm. The accident claimed the lives of 78 people, including four in cars on the 14th Street Bridge. However, a few survivors from the shattered aircraft were rescued from the icy river by a combination of heroic efforts of civilians and professionals. Some of that heroism was commended during President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union speech a few days later. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the cause of the accident was aircraft icing and the failure of the pilots to use all of their anti-icing equipment or abort the takeoff.
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[edit] Summary
There were 74 passengers (including 3 infants) and 5 crew members on board. All but 5 of the occupants of the plane died. The aircraft struck the bridge which carries Interstate Highway 395 between Washington, D.C., and Arlington, Virginia. It crushed 7 occupied vehicles on the 14th Street Bridge, killing 4 people, and took out 20 feet of guard rail, before it plunged through the ice into the Potomac River. A total of 78 persons died in what was the worst air disaster in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area until the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The crash occurred less than two miles from the White House and within view of both the Jefferson Memorial and The Pentagon.
[edit] Record cold weather conditions
During the second week of January 1982, one of the worst periods of exceptionally cold weather in history had struck the east coast of the United States. Atlanta, Georgia recorded freezing temperatures, and the citrus crop in Florida was considered to be at risk. Around the nation's capital, for several days, freezing temperatures had brought vehicles to a standstill and interfered with daily activities.
On January 13, at Washington National Airport (DCA), which is located in Arlington, Virginia, immediately across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., the airport had opened at noon under marginal conditions. The crew of Air Florida Flight 90 had left Miami at 11:00 a.m. EST, and arrived at about 1:45 p.m. EST.
That afternoon, they were to return south to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with an intermediate stop at Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, Florida. The scheduled departure time was delayed about 1 hour 45 minutes due to a moderate to heavy snowfall, which necessitated the temporary closing of the airport.
[edit] Delays, poor decisions, crash
The aircraft was de-iced, by spraying the wings with an antifreeze-type chemical mixture, but the plane had trouble leaving the gate when the ground services tow motor couldn't get traction on the ice. For a period of close to five minutes, the crew elected to use the reverse thrust of the 737's JT8D engines, ingesting ice and failing to move the aircraft. Cooler heads prevailed, and a tug properly equipped with snow chains was used to push the aircraft back from the gate. After finally leaving the departure gate, the Boeing 737-222 aircraft waited on a taxiway 49 minutes in line with other aircraft for clearance to use the congested airport's only instrument-rated runway, which requires a treacherous flight path north following the river, and winding between restricted airspace and obstacles such as the Washington Monument and The Pentagon.
The pilot apparently decided not to return to the gate for reapplication of de-icing, fearing the flight's departure would be even further delayed, and chose to continue waiting to takeoff. Then, with snow and ice on the airfoil surfaces of the aircraft, the aircraft attempted to take off on the main (and only open) runway in heavy snow at 3:59 p.m. EST. Even though it was freezing and snowing, the crew did not activate the anti-ice systems. Analysis (confirmed by the FBI) of the flight voice recorder (black box) tape determined that during the departure checklist, the copilot announced, and the pilot confirmed, that the plane's own anti-icing system was turned off. This system uses heat from the engines to prevent sensors from freezing and providing inaccurate readings.
During the plane's taxiing, the cockpit voice recorder picked up this conversation between the pilot and co-pilot, in which they discussed the icing situation.
| Co-pilot: "It's a losing battle, trying to de-ice these things. It gives you a false feeling of security, that's all it does."
Pilot: "Well, it satisfies the Feds (government regulators)." |
Adding to the plane's troubles was the pilot and co-pilot's decision to maneuver closely behind a DC-9 that was taxiing just ahead of the Air Florida aircraft prior to takeoff in order that the warmth from the DC-9's engines would melt snow and ice accumulated on Flight 90's wings. This action - which went specifically against flight manual recommendations for an icing situation - actually contributed to additional icing on the accident aircraft.
Unfortunately, neither pilot nor co-pilot had much experience flying in snowy, cold weather. And the pilot, Larry Wheaton, had failed a flight simulator test the previous year, with one of his instructors citing Wheaton's unfamiliarity with flight rules and regulations. He took a repeat test soon after and passed.
As it turned out, the failure to operate the plane's anti-icing system caused exactly what could be expected to happen: the Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR) thrust indicators provided false high readings - when the pilots thought they had throttled up to the correct take-off EPR of 2.04, the actual EPR was only 1.70. The aircraft traveled almost 1/2 mile (800 m) further down the runway than is customary before liftoff was accomplished. Survivors of the crash indicated the trip over the runway was extremely rough, one of whom admitted he feared that they would not get airborne and would "fall off the end of the runway."
As the plane headed down the runway, the co-pilot noted several times to the pilot that the readings he was seeing on the instrument panel didn't seem to reflect reality (he was referring to the fact that the plane didn't seem to have developed as much power as it needed for takeoff, despite the controls saying otherwise.) The pilot waved off the co-pilot's concerns, and let the take-off proceed. Investigators later determined that there was plenty of time and space on the runway for the pilot to have aborted the take-off, and criticized his refusal to listen to his co-pilot, who was correct that the instrument panel readings were wrong.
As the plane became briefly airborne, the flight-recorder picked up these words from the cockpit:
| Pilot: "Forward, forward. Easy. We only want 500 (feet per minute)."
Pilot: "Come on - forward. Just barely climb." Pilot: "Stalling, we're falling!" Co-Pilot: "Larry, we're going down Larry!" Pilot: "I know it!" (Sound of impact, end of tape.) |
Although the aircraft did manage to become airborne, it attained a maximum altitude of just 337 feet before it began losing altitude. Recorders later indicated that the aircraft was airborne for just 30 seconds. At 4:01 p.m. EST it crashed into the 14th Street Bridge across the Potomac River, 0.75 nautical miles (1400 m) from the end of the runway.
It hit six cars and a truck on the bridge, and tore away 20 feet of guard rail. The wrecked aircraft then plunged into the freezing Potomac River. All but the tail section quickly became submerged.
As a result of injuries received during the crash, 4 of the 5 crew members including both pilots, and 69 of the 74 passengers perished, leaving only 6 survivors in the freezing water out of the 79 who had been aboard the aircraft. There were also four fatalities among the motorists on the bridge, with four others on the bridge injured. Most of the passengers were killed by the forces involved in the impact, not by drowning.
Clinging to the tail section of the broken airliner with 5 passengers in the ice-choked Potomac River, flight attendant Kelly Duncan inflated the only flotation device they could find, and passed it to one of the more-injured passengers, Nikki Felch.
[edit] Hampered response, unlikely heroes
The blizzard conditions had happened fairly suddenly on this day, and many Federal Government offices in downtown Washington had just been closed early. Thus, there was a massive backup of traffic on almost all of the city's roads, making it almost impossible for ambulances to reach the crash site. The United States Coast Guard's Capstan (WYTL 65601) a 65-foot harbor tugboat and its crew based nearby whose duties include ice breaking and responding to such a water rescue were some considerable distance away downriver on another search-and-rescue mission. Emergency ground response was greatly hampered by ice covered roads and gridlocked traffic. Ambulances attempting to reach the scene were even driven down the sidewalk in front of the White House. Rescuers who did reach the site stood and watched in horror, as they had no adequate equipment to reach the survivors, and the below-freezing waters and heavy ice made swimming out to them all but impossible. Multiple attempts to try to throw a makeshift lifeline - made out of belts and any other things available that could be tied together - out to the survivors proved ineffectual.
One man, Roger Olian, a sheet-metal foreman at St Elizabeth's, a Washington hospital for the mentally ill, was on his way home across the 14th Street bridge in his truck when he heard a man yelling that there was an aircraft in the water. He was the first to jump into the water to attempt to contact the survivors. Other motorists and civilian bystanders made a makeshift rope of battery cables, scarves, and anything else they could find to keep Olian from drowning. He remained in the water for about twenty minutes until a United States Park Service Police helicopter arrived, whereupon he was reeled back to shore by the others, while the helicopter crew focused on the crash survivors clinging to the tail section of the plane.
[edit] The only rescue helicopter arrives
News cameramen watched helplessly from the bridge, being only able to record the disaster for the rest of the world to see. Suddenly hope arrived in the form of a park police helicopter, trailing a lifeline reaching to the outstretched arms of the victims in the water below. The pilot apparently had to navigate by following the freeway out to the Potomac River from the small windows on the bottom of the copter as air visibility was zero at the time. Further compounding the problem was that the disaster location - or exactly what was the disaster - was unknown, as flight controllers were only aware that the plane had disappeared from the runway and did not respond to radio calls, but had no idea what had happened or where the plane was.
At approximately 4:20 p.m. EST, Eagle 1, a United States Park Police Bell 206L-1 Long Ranger helicopter, N2PP, based at the "Eagles Nest" at Anacostia Park in Washington, D.C. and manned by pilot Donald W. Usher and paramedic Melvin E. (Gene) Windsor arrived and began attempting to assist the survivors to shore. At great risk to themselves, the crew worked close to the river surface, at one time coming so close to the ice-clogged river that the helicopter's skids went beneath the surface of the water.
The helicopter crew lowered a line to survivors to tow them to shore. First to receive the line, Bert Hamilton, who was treading water about ten feet from the floating tail, took the single lifeline dangling beneath the chopper and passed it under his arms. The others watched while the helicopter carried him a hundred yards to the Virginia shore and returned. The helicopter returned to the location of the aircraft's tail, and this time a survivor sometimes referred to as "the sixth passenger" (later identified as Arland D. Williams Jr.) caught the line. Instead of wrapping it around himself, however, he passed it to flight attendant Kelly Duncan. On its third trip back to the wreckage, the helicopter trailed two lifelines, for its crew knew that survival in the river was now only a matter of minutes. One of the lines was aimed at "the sixth passenger." He caught it again, and again passed it on, this time to Joe Stiley, the most severely injured survivor. Stiley slipped the line around his waist and grabbed Priscilla Tirado, who, having lost her husband and baby, was in complete hysteria. Patricia Felch took the second line, and the helicopter pulled away. Before it reached the shore, however, both Priscilla Tirado and Patricia Felch lost their grip and fell back into the water.
By then one of these passengers, Priscilla Tirado, was too weak to grab the line. A watching bystander, Congressional Budget office assistant Lenny Skutnik, stripped off his coat and boots, and in short sleeves, dove into the icy water, and swam out to assist her. The helicopter then proceeded to where Patricia Felch had fallen, and paramedic Gene Windsor dropped from the safety of the helicopter into the water to attach a line to her. By the time the helicopter crew could return for the sixth passenger, the last survivor, both he and the plane's tail section had disappeared beneath the icy surface. He had been in the paralyzing cold for twenty-nine minutes. His body and those of the other occupants were later recovered. According to the coroner, this man, who had passed the lifeline to others, was the only plane passenger to die by drowning.
Even as the response of emergency crews to the scene was frustrated on the traffic on surface streets, a half hour after the plane crashed, the Washington Metro suffered its first fatal subway crash, which meant that the busiest airport, busiest highway and busiest subway line were all closed simultaneously, paralyzing the Washington, D.C. area. (See "Unusual Coincidence" below.)
[edit] Responses in the media
News media outlets followed the story with diligence. Notably, The Washington Post published a story about the unidentified survivor of the impact (the "sixth passenger") who handed the lifeline to others and apparently drowned before he could be rescued himself.
| "He was about 50 years old, one of half a dozen survivors clinging to twisted wreckage bobbing in the icy Potomac when the first helicopter arrived. To the copter's two-man Park Police crew he seemed the most alert. Life vests were dropped, then a flotation ball. The man passed them to the others. On two occasions, the crew recalled last night, he handed away a life line from the hovering machine that could have dragged him to safety. The helicopter crew - who rescued five people, the only persons who survived from the jetliner - lifted a woman to the riverbank, then dragged three more persons across the ice to safety. Then the life line saved a woman who was trying to swim away from the sinking wreckage, and the helicopter pilot, Donald W. Usher, returned to the scene, but the man was gone," [1] |
One day after the crash, shock jock Howard Stern called Air Florida during his radio show on WWDC-FM and asked if the flight to the 14th Street Bridge was going to be a regular stop.
[edit] NTSB conclusion
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was pilot error stating that "the flight crew’s failure to use engine anti-ice during ground operation and takeoff, their decision to take off with snow/ice on the airfoil surfaces of the aircraft, and the captain’s failure to reject the takeoff during the early stage when his attention was called to anomalous engine instrument readings.
"Contributing to the accident were the prolonged ground delay between de-icing and the receipt of ATC takeoff clearance during which the aircraft was exposed to continual precipitation, the known inherent pitchup characteristics of the B-737 aircraft when the leading edge is contaminated with even small amounts of snow or ice, and the limited experience of the flight crew in jet transport winter operations."
The aircraft, N62AF, was first delivered to United Airlines in 1969 as N9050U Boeing serial #19556 and was the 130th aircraft off the 737 line.
[edit] Honoring heroism
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 officially named the "Rochambeau Bridge", was renamed the "Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge" in his honor. The Citadel in South Carolina, from which he graduated in 1957, has several memorials to him. In 2003, the new Arland D. Williams Jr. Elementary School was dedicated in his hometown of Mattoon in Coles County, Illinois.
Civilians Roger Olian and Lenny Skutnik received the United States Coast Guard's Gold Lifesaving Medal. Arland D. Williams also received the award posthumously. Skutnik was introduced to the joint session of the U.S. Congress during President Ronald Reagan's State of the Union speech later that month. President Reagan also personally contacted and privately thanked Roger Olian.
The two crewmen of the U.S. Park Police helicopter Eagle 1 were awarded the United States Coast Guard's Silver Lifesaving Medal. The U.S. Park Service is part of the United States Department of the Interior. Pilot Donald W. Usher and paramedic Melvin E. Windsor also received the Department of the Interior's Valor Award from Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt in a special ceremony soon afterward. Usher is now Superintendent of the U.S. Park Police Training Academy in Brunswick, Georgia.
Roger Olian, Lennie Skutnik, Donald Usher, and Melvin Windsor each received the Carnegie Hero Fund Medal.
[edit] Unusual coincidence
Simultaneous to this plane crash, a train derailed on the Washington Metro system between the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations, slightly to the north. In attempting to restore the train to the rails, the supervisors backed it up, but they did not notice that another car had also derailed. In attempting to reverse the train, the other rail car slid off the track, slammed into a tunnel support, and killed three people. It remains the worst accident that has ever occurred on the Metrorail system in over 25 years of operation. That accident was compounded by lack of availability of ambulances, which at the time were all trying to reach the 14th Street Bridge disaster.
[edit] References
- Trivers, R. L. & Newton, H. P. The crash of flight 90: doomed by self-deception? Science Digest (November 1982): pp 66,67,111.
- History Channel program on Air Florida Flight 90.
[edit] Notes
- ^ "A Hero - Passenger Aids Others, Then Dies." The Washington Post. January 14, 1982.
[edit] External links
- NTSB Report AAR-82/08 Air Florida, Inc., Boeing 737-222, N62AF, Collision with 14th Street Bridge near Washington National Airport Washington, D.C. January 13, 1982
- AirDisaster.Com Special Report: Air Florida Flight 90
- Air Florida Flight 90: Reservists remember
- Roads to the Future website - 14th Street Bridge, the Air Florida Crash, and Subway Disaster
- Cockpit voice recording transcript for the crash of Air Florida Flight 90
- Aviation Safety Network - report on Air Florida Flight 90
- Accident details at planecrashinfo.com
- Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac at the Internet Movie Database
- Arlington VA Fire Department response details to Air Florida 90 crash
- Aviation Past Accident Files, Air Florida Flight 90
- Bridge of Sighs (2003 report on the survivors 21 years later)
