In 1982, an Air Florida 737 crashed into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and fell into the Potomac River while trying to take off during a snowstorm, killing a total of 78 people; four passengers and a flight attendant survived.
Chilling memory. I used to go by that spot almost every day on my way to work from Arlington to Alexandria.
It just happened that I had flown Air Florida to Miami to visit a girlfriend when I watched the events in the icy snowy events take place on the rescue attempts on the Potomac. I was so absorbed in this horrific crash, I forgot where I was ... when I walked outside I was shocked that it was not frigid cold and snowing.
There was a lot of heroism that day, from the guy (Lenny) who jumped in the frigid waters from the river bank to try to rescue passengers, to the man (passenger) who clung to the tail of the jet and kept passing on the helicopter sling to other, and then succumbed to the cold waters and slipped below the surface. I don't think he was ever found and identified.
