National Park After Dark - The Crash of Air Florida Flight 90: National Mall and Memorial Parks

Episode Date: February 19, 2024

On January 13, 1982 the world watched live as an airplane rescue was broadcasted live on national television for the very first time. The US Park Police responded to a crash into the Potomac river, leaving survivors struggling in the icy cold waters.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Zocdoc: Use our link to download the Zocdoc app for free.BetterHelp: National Park After Dark is sponsored by BetterHelp. Get 10% off.StellarSleep: For a 7 day free trial then JUST $99 a year, head to StellarSleep.com/NPAD.IQBAR: Text PARK to 64000 to get 20% off all IQBAR products and free shipping.For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally. Breathe. Girl, winter is so last season. And now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders.

That perfect hang on the patio sundress. Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope? It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers made history with the first powered flight.

For 121 years, people have been mastering the art of aviation, with thousands of new innovations and aircraft models created since. However, when you consider that people have lived on Earth for approximately 300,000 years, and only for the past 121 we have been airborne, it suddenly feels dangerously new. Still, traveling by airplane has been deemed the safest mode of transportation, safer than cars, trains, buses, or boats. But even the safest form of transportation has its risks. And when a plane crashes, it hits the news and sparks fear in those who love to travel.

Most crashes are reported with a photo or a live stream after the crash and rescue, if possible, is already over. But on January 13, 1982, when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed, it was broadcasted around the nation in real time. People clung to their televisions while rescuers struggled to save the survivors. And it has forever left a mark on all the people who witnessed that day. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I'm sorry, did you say the 13th? Yes. Of January, not February.

We're recording on February 13th right now. I'm like, you've done it again. Another anniversary. It's close, though. It is very close. And thank God I'm not the one doing a plane crash and it's you. Yes, thank God. Thank God. I can just hear it and not have to toss and turn all night with the research in my mind. So I'm so sorry for you. But you've talked about this for the last couple weeks. So I'm really excited to hear it all come together. And I know it's going to be a difficult one.

So there's that. This is definitely a difficult episode. and I have recently gotten more of a fear of flying over the past couple of years. I don't, I'm not overtly, like, terrified when we're in the air or anything, but, I mean, you know, you've flown with me many times. I don't love it. And researching this plane crash in particular was kind of rough because it was. It was broadcasted on live television where everyone watched it then live, but now I'm researching it

and I'm rewatching the video of the whole thing. And it is so traumatizing. It's all over YouTube. I mean, you can see these people fighting for survival. And I'll go into all of this. But basically, for today's story, I'm going to be telling the rescue and survival story of Air Florida Flight 90 and how it became the first breaking news plane crash

to be broadcasted live on television because the world watched this all in real time while the National Park Service rescued survivors and tended to this horrific scene that left 78 people dead. And you said Air Florida, was it in Florida? No. It was heading to Florida.

This flight was heading to Florida. But it actually takes place in Washington, D.C., within the National Mall and Memorial Parks, which is actually part of the 30 units that are managed by the National Park Service in the area. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Directly, we're not going to a national park that we usually think of when we're heading to the bigger, beautiful places, but we're going to more of the historical parks. And it's very, very much a

national park service story. I mean, the whole response team, not the whole response team, but major response personnel in this was part of the National Park Service. And I wanted to point this out too with Washington, D.C. in particular, because I think that not a lot of people realize that a large portion of Washington, D.C. is actually designated National Parkland and is managed by the National Park Service. So some of the sites that are part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks are things that probably everyone listening will recognize. There's the Washington Monument, the Ford's Theater where Lincoln was assassinated, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the World War II Memorial. So that's kind of like that whole

middle area where you can walk. You can walk to all of it. And a lot of people tour over there. I've taken scooters and gone to each of these memorials, like rented those scooters they have down there. And it's all National Park Service. I've been there in eighth grade. Eighth grade we did a field trip there. And that was my, I want to say, other than just passing through, that was pretty much my only time of being immersed in it. And it's during a time that I could really probably have given a crap less, which is unfortunate. Because now it would be so thrilling to go.

And I visited a friend, I have one friend that, and I feel like a lot of people have this type of friend that you talk to once every five years. And it's like you just pick up right where you left off. His name's Chad. And we met in sophomore year of high school during a class called walking for wellness. And literally. That sounds like a nice class. You just walked around. That's all you did. This sounds lovely. You just walked for wellness, I guess. And walking is good for you. Yeah. And. And. like he's involved in the government somehow. I never really figured out what he does, but he's been all over the place and like all over the country, Hawaii, like just living in all these different places. And every once in a while, we'll just text each other and be like, hey, what are you doing? Do you want to hang out? And like, we'll just like get together. Yeah. And the last time I did that, he was living in D.C. So that was the last time I was there. But we weren't walking the national mall. You know what I mean? So it's just.

Because- Mistake, huge. Huge mistake. We should do a trip here one time because there is just so much history. And when I've I've been to this area several times. I have friends that live down there and I've done the trip down there myself. But they have so many museums in Washington, D.C. that I would love to go to. And I feel like you would really like to.

The big natural history museum would be amazing. And yeah, it's just a cool area, chock full of stuff that we both enjoy. So I don't know what we're doing, not going there. But we'll figure it out. We'll get there at some point for sure. So this happened in the National Mall area. And Memorial Parks area. So included in this is this area, but it also includes some of the surrounding areas from the west and East Potomac Parks.

So the Potomac River goes through the D.C. area. and there's national parks, sites and services along this river as well. And it extends there. The national mall itself stretches west from the foot of Capitol Hill at Ulysses S. Grant Memorial to encompass the original mall area all the way to 14th Street. It includes the Washington Monument Grounds, the tidal basin area, and the West Potomac Park before ending at the Watergate steps behind the Lincoln Memorial. So it has this really extensive area, and because it's such an extensive area,

extensive area within this big part of Washington, D.C. It also has several metro stations provided there that are readily available to access the National Mall and Memorial Park so you don't have to walk around all of these. And when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed, it crashed into the 14th Street Bridge, which is directly part of the National Park Service grounds. And when you look at videos and see photos of the crash site, you can see the memorials in the back. Like you can see the Washington Memorial from the pictures. So it's very, very close. And to also give reference for location for people who are listening who may have been to

the area, when Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge, which is on the Potomac River, it was only two kilometers or 1.24 miles from the White House. Oh. And they were just a couple minutes from the Pentagon. So they're like very much downtown D.C. The 14th Street Bridge itself and the Potomac River, the plane was submerged in, is also all part of the National Park and is managed by the National Park Service. A long-winded way to say that this is a national park. I know. It's like we always, I feel like I don't know where this weird pressure comes from because not one single person has ever said anything to us about a story of not being connected enough. And like we stress about it a lot for no reason.

I know it doesn't look like a national park. And I know it's weird and it's in a city, but I swear it's a national park. You can look it up. I did a lot of research to make sure. But what makes this interesting is because this is an urban national park service unit. There's also a special unit that's employed here. And they are the United States Park Police. And they are sent out to patrol and respond to incidents within the park.

They patrol on foot via horseback, cars, and. aviation and I was there's only a couple locations where the United States Park police exist and I forget all of them but one of them was San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge because it's such an urban area here this police force are there for crimes that are committed within the park car crashes rescues protests are a really big thing especially in D.C. with the White House and all the memorials there they're also charged with protecting national icons and monuments So a huge part of their job is to protect all those memorials down there. In Washington, D.C., they work directly with the intelligence and counterterrorism branch,

Homeland Security, Special Forces, units, and more. They are equipped and trained to handle all emergencies. And although they could never have predicted what would have happened that fateful winter day in January, they were prepared and trained for all types of situations. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want.

Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already read twice. Off campus, L. Every year after, The Love Hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Going into our story, January 1982 was a record-breaking winter for Washington, D.C., with extreme cold snaps and snowstorms that were pretty unusual for the area. On this particular day, January 13th, they were experiencing a very heavy snowstorm.

It had started in the early hours of the morning, first as a light snow, but quickly changed to a heavy wet snow that was coming down quickly, accumulating two to three inches per hour. By early afternoon, the storm had caused downtown Washington, D.C. to have major traffic jams with slow moving road conditions and warnings for people to stay. home and off of the roads. The Washington National Airport was also experiencing major delays in their flight schedule due to trying to keep up with the snow removal on the runways. Still, even with these struggles, people flocked to the airport with hopes that their flights would not be canceled. For Joseph Stiley and Nikki Felch, it was a very normal day. They were co-workers working in telecommunications traveling together to Tampa, Florida. For both of them, they traveled often and this was just another ordinary trip. Joseph Stiley worked as a U.S. Navy pilot several years before and was very familiar with planes. They arrived at the airport and awaited boarding on Air Flight Florida 90. Priscilla Trurodo, her husband Jose, and their two-month-old baby arrived that morning, excited to begin a new chapter of their lives. They were officially moving to Florida because of a promising job in construction that Jose had waiting for him there.

Bert Hamilton waited for the announcement to board Air Florida Flight 90 at Gate 12 of the airport with seven of his other colleagues for a work trip. Arland D. Williams Jr. would be on flight 90 that day. He was based out of Atlanta working as an Atlanta federal bank examiner. Back in Atlanta, he had a new fiance, a son, and a daughter waiting for him. He was an avid adventurer and national park enthusiast. Every summer, they would head to the Smoky Mountains National Park to camp, hike, and bike as a family. At the time of the flight, he had been on a work trip to Tampa when some matters came up in D.C. He flew there for a very brief amount of time for some meetings and now was at the airport waiting to get back down to Florida to work again with the bank down there.

This trip to D.C. was so fast that he didn't actually even tell his family he was going there. He just hopped up, was coming right back down. And at the time of the crash, they thought that he was still in Tampa on his original work plans. Kelly Duncan was a relatively new flight attendant at the young age of 22, she was preparing for her work flight on Air Florida Flight 90 and awaiting instructions, anticipating delays because of the storm. Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737, was a passenger flight scheduled to leave the Washington National Airport at 2.15 that afternoon on January 13, 1982. Its final destination was Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida with a layover at the Tampa International Airport. The plane was not even half full that day. With 71,

adult passengers and three infants scheduled to fly that day. There were five crew members in total, three flight attendants along with the captain and first officer. Captain Larry Wheaton was the main pilot for the flight. At 34 years old, he had been flying 737s with Air Florida for just about three years. Previously, he had worked for an airline that Air Florida bought flying much smaller aircrafts, but had over 8,000 hours of flying experience with those smaller planes. He was promoted to captain, And a captain, just for reference, is the main pilot in an aircraft. In 1980, with only 1,200 hours of jet experience, which in comparison to other pilots is much less than major aircraft carriers usually have. Usually pilots spend an average of 14 years as a first officer, which is the second pilot in command, before being promoted to that position.

So he only had 1,200 hours of flying experience, and he was already a captain. First officer Roger Pettit had a lot of experience flying, but not on Boeing 737s. He had worked in the military flying F-15s, which are fighter jets, where he had 3,350 hours of flying. He had 992 hours of flying a Boeing 737, which wasn't abnormal for a first officer, but it does highlight that he was pretty new in this field of flying these planes. That day the snow was falling so hard that the airport was having a hard time keeping. up with the amount of snowfall. At 138, just before boarding began for Flight 90, the airport decided to completely shut down for snow removal. Flight 90 was delayed, but not by too long.

At 2 p.m. passengers started boarding the plane, only 20 minutes later than scheduled. As the passengers boarded, the snow continued to fall outside, and the airport was struggling to keep up with the snow removal still. It took longer than expected, and Flight 90 was further delayed. Now with all of the passengers on board, watching the snow accumulate on the wings of the plane, but they just had to sit there and wait for the okay to leave the gate. Flight 90 was not the only flight delayed that day. All flights at the time were ordered to stay on the ground until the airport reopened, which was scheduled for 230, but lasted until 253 p.m. While they waited, the captain initially asked the de-icing crew on the ground to de-ice the plane just before the airport was scheduled to reopen. He wanted to

be able to get first priority on the runway to be able to take off first. So he basically said, hey, let's start de-icing this preemptively so I can just get out there. The crew began de-icing measures on both wings of the plane. The de-icing was ultimately halted when they discovered the airport would not be opening on the time that they thought. And they discovered that he did not have priority to leave first anyway, that he was going to have to wait for other planes in front of him before he could go. Around 250 p.m., the de-icing of the plane resumed, but there were already problems underway that no one would realize until later. In these days in snow and ice storms, plants were de-iced using heated water and an anti-ice coat of glycol and water that was also

heated. The mixture of how much of each is dependent on the temperatures outside, and in a miscommunication error, the formula used was for 28 degrees or negative 2 degrees Celsius, but the actual temperature was 24 degrees or 4 degrees Celsius. So right out the gate, there was a mistake made where they were not de-icing the plane at the temperature that they were supposed to be. De-icing was completed at 3.15 p.m. and a tug vehicle was standing by to push flight 90 from the gate. But shortly after permission was granted to depart, they found themselves with another delay.

With the snow and ice on the ground, the weight of the aircraft, the tug vehicle was not able to help the plane move from the gate and they were stuck. When this did not work, the captain radioed suggesting using reverse thrust to help the plane move from the gate. And to explain exactly what this is, because I'm not an expert on planes by any means at all, I took an excerpt from an article on an aviation school's website explaining what reverse thrust is and if it should be used. Okay. And this is direct quote. It says, airplanes are meant to go forwards.

This is part of the reason why the pushback tractors are used. However, there is another way airplanes can go backwards. This can be done with thrust reversers. This procedure can also be referred to as a power back. To power back, the thrust reversers and the turbine engines are used to direct error forward instead of backward. This technique is also used to help planes slow down more quickly after landing. Unfortunately, there are some major downsides to using thrust reversers. In fact, many aircrafts are banned from doing this at all.

when they are at their gate. The large blast of air caused by the thrust reversers can cause debris to go flying. This could damage the aircraft itself or others nearby and be dangerous for ground crew. Foreign object debris is already something airport struggle against. Any item, no matter how small, that gets stuck in the engine, can cause catastrophic damage. After the captain suggested using the reverse thrust, the crew radioed back and explained that this was not permitted within the airline policy. For whatever reason, though, that we're not sure of, following this response, for a period of 30 to 90 seconds, personnel on the ground observed the plane using the reverse thrust. The effort proved to not be successful in moving the plane at all, and they had to kind of start from scratch because the captain did this for we're not sure why.

Unknown reasons, yeah. Unknown reasons why he decided to go forward with it. But because he did, they had to do another inspection of the plane to conduct. that there was no debris or ice on the engine or the wings because of him doing this, and the person who inspected it concluded at the time that there was not any extra debris and cleared the plane. A second tug vehicle was brought in to help move the plane, and at 335, they were finally pushed back from gate 12. And by this time, it was about an hour and 20 minutes since their original flight time. While the captain and first officer went through their pre-flight

checklist, they had a discussion about the ice on the plane. The first time, the first officer, the first First officer was in particular concerned about the amount of ice that had built up on the plane and made comments that the plane had not been de-iced in a while since there are other delays. Because so they were de-iced, then they struggled to get out. They had to have the tug vehicles come in. It's been like 20 or so 30 minutes or so since they've been de-iced. And part of the de-icing procedure is really important because having ice on the wings of the plane can severely change how the plane can fly.

so they need to do that as soon as possible before flight. There can't be any delay in between. At 3.59 p.m., the plane was cleared for takeoff and flight attendants took their seats. Two of them sat in the front of the plane closest to the cockpit while Kelly Duncan took her jump seat in the rear. Flight 90 was finally on the runway, speeding down the tarmac for takeoff, and shortly after it, there was a problem. What we know from here forward on the plane comes from the recovery of a black box that was recording the conversations in the cockpit. As the plane went down the runway, the thrust readers were higher than the target level for takeoff. To try and combat this, Roger, the first officer, let off on the throttle, but this created another problem.

It was taking longer than normal to reach takeoff speeds. Roger could be heard in the recording saying, That doesn't seem right, does it? Uh, that's not right. And the captain responds that everything's fine and that it is. Joe Stiley, who seated towards the back of the plane and was a pilot himself, was watching out the window with this awful feeling. He recognizes that they were not traveling at the normal speed, and he got this dreaded feeling that he should have never gotten on this plane. Despite the issues,

the pilots proceed, and the plane finally reaches takeoff speeds, and they go into the air. Within seconds, the nose of the plane pitches upward sharply, and the whole plane begins to shake. In the cockpit, alarms start going off, warning the pilots that the plane was in danger of stalling. Because of the nose position, it created too much drag for the plane to gain the speed it needed to. And if the plane doesn't reach the speeds that it needs to, it will stall and drop from the air. Captain Larry Wheaton ordered Roger to drop the nose of the plane, but not too far so it could continue to climb. In the 12 seconds that they had been in the air, they had traveled one kilometer and were climbing over DC towards the 14th Street bridge over the Potomac River. The 14th Street Bridge at the time was at a standstill in traffic. The

Heavy snow and limited snow removal resources of the area had left commuters struggling to drive on the roads. Marion Grant Jr., a construction worker on the bridge who was on his way to work, had been stuck there for 15 minutes, and he looked up to see a low-flying plane. Flight 90 was only at 352 feet or 170 meters in the air. Then suddenly, it began to drop from the sky. The screaming of the jet engines grabbed the attention of every car in the bridge, but the plane was moving so quickly that as soon as they saw it, it was too late. In the cockpit, Roger could be heard yelling, Larry, we're going down. Larry responded by saying, I know it. Just over one minute after takeoff, the plane hit the 14th Street Bridge before then hitting

the water of the Potomac River and breaking into four sections. In a matter of seconds, chaos erupted on the 14th Street Bridge. Marion Grant's truck was hit directly by the wing of the plane and flipped onto its side. was uninjured and managed to climb out, but the carnage he saw on the bridge quickly revealed the gravity of the situation. A car that had been in traffic next to him was crushed and he could see the driver inside mangled body. He didn't need to get close to know that they did not survive. When he looked in another direction, he saw a man who was almost entirely decapitated. Commotion and screams were heard all around him. Meanwhile, passengers on the plane were submerged into the icy cold water.

The water at the time below the ice was just one degree above freezing. The plane had plummeted through the ice and sunk into the river. For onlookers, what was almost more horrifying than the crash itself was looking into the river below. The Potomac had a massive crater where the ice was broken from the plane, but besides a small bit of debris, it was completely gone. It was entirely submerged underneath the water. Joe Stiley, who had been knocked out during the crash, came to when the plane hit the water. water. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he had broken 67 bones throughout his body. Oh my God. How many do we have? How many bones does a human body have? I feel like that's something we should know. I agree. And I don't

know why 203 is in my mind, but I know some of them fuse when you get older. So you actually- 26. Oh, wow. We're really close. I was going to say 260. So, Well, that's still a large portion of your bones. Yeah. Yeah, 67 is a lot of bones to break. Oh, yeah. But for him, the pain was hardly a thought because the icy water stung and numbed his body and it was rising quickly around him.

He awoke to water rising over his head and him still inside the aircraft attached to his seat. He unbuckled himself and struggled to get his legs out from the crushed seats in front of him. He managed to wiggle himself free, though, and turned his attention to his coworker, Nikki. He helped pull her free and they both started swimming out of the back of the aircraft where the tail of the plane had once been. At this point, they were both underwater, with their eyes open following the light that signaled the surface. Just minutes after the crash, news crews were on the bridge recording the events unfolding live on national television. A massive crowd of people gathered on the bridge and the shoreline at the Potomac to see what was happening. Joe and Nikki surfaced and were holding

onto a piece of the tail debris that sat atop the water. Arlen Williams was at the surface, stuck attached to his seat and struggling to stay above the water, but holding on to pieces of the plane. Bert Hamilton had also made it to the surface. Kelly Duncan, the flight attendant, sitting in the rear of the plane, had blacked out on impact. She awoke in freezing cold waters, so cold it felt like she was being stabbed with a thousand knives. In a panic, she swam until she reached the surface. She held onto the wreckage, gasped, for air and screaming for help. The human body can only withstand being in water temperatures as cold as these for about 30 minutes,

and after only a few minutes, the cold will cause the freezing of muscles and limbs and make it difficult to move. Priscilla Torado had surfaced from the water as well. Her husband and two-month-old baby were nowhere to be found. She could be seen from the bridge and was live streamed on camera screaming for help. She could be heard calling for her baby, while she too was holding onto debris of the place. to keep her afloat. I don't know if we're going to talk about this more or not, but I just have to say while it's on my mind right now, I don't know how I feel about live coverage like that of such a

huge disaster. Like I understand people want to know what's going on and this and that, but to live stream. And I mean, of course, this is what in the 80s. Now it happens so much more frequently on an individual basis, not just like, you know, and it doesn't now even have to be on a major news station for most of the people in the country to see something if it's going around social media or whatever. And I just can't help but put myself in the position, not even me being there, because I guess I don't really even care that much about that. But if it was someone that I loved, a family member or a friend, I don't like that. I don't think that's appropriate and I don't know like I said if we're going to talk about it more but it just seems so

icky to me. Well imagine that it's your family member and you're just watching the news and suddenly you see your mom or your sister or your cousin or something screaming for help and water while it's all being videotaped on live TV. Yeah. Well that's the thing. I just yeah I don't know like I know there's a place for news broadcasts and that's how information is spread and we get to know what's going on in the world. But at the same time, I feel like there's a respect boundary that's so often crossed when it comes to disasters of any kind, whether they be like an aviation accident, a natural disaster, just different things like that. I just, I mean, it's hard. Yeah, I agree. I think that there's a time in a place for things. And I think that there's something to be said about having stuff recorded,

especially in an instance like this where there's so many things that happen to be able to go back and look at it and maybe even take, I mean, it will go into it, but there's a huge rescue effort for these people. And for rescue personnel, this could be a good training thing later in life to be like, let's examine or investigate, to be able to investigate things that were going on to understand, But to put it on such a public platform and live when you don't know what the outcome's going to be, it's just, I agree. Yeah, there's no filtration. It's not like, hey, we're going to broadcast this even an hour later once we know more. It's just as it's unfolding, it's just wild.

And there's thousands, maybe millions of people tuning in. And I feel so out of touch by saying this, but I have not watched the news in years. I don't watch the news. You know, like obviously I read. the news and I follow big events and things like that. But as far as an actual news station, I haven't tuned in on cable television and watched live in years. So I don't know if that's like common practice for things to be broadcasted live. I feel like it's not, right? Or I mean, things are live stream. People go to events and situations that are unfolding at the time. I mean,

that's not. But I think it's uncommon for full rest. you efforts to be fully recorded. Or like a live shoot, like if there's a shooting. And I hate to bring that as an example, but it's unfortunately something that we see a lot in the United States, like a live unfolding of events. There's usually barriers that police put up and news personnel can only get so close. So they can live stream and broadcast, but they're not on scene. Like this story.

Like this story. Okay. I think is generally how it goes. I'm sure. Not in all cases, but generally. Within minutes, rescue personnel were on site. The U.S. Park Police and rescue teams, employed by the National Park Service, arrived with ambulances, fire trucks, and boats to get out to the water.

News crews and onlookers watched as they inflated their rafts and geared up to get into the water, but they watched as crews struggled to gain any distance. Their boats couldn't move through the thick chunks of ice. At 4.06 p.m., the U.S. Park Police Aviated, unit received a call just six minutes after the crash. They were requesting urgently to send them to the scene to help in the rescue efforts. Despite the snow conditions and poor visibility, they rushed into their helicopter and took off for the site. Despite all the rescue teams on site, they were actually poorly equipped for this disaster. They had lots of training. They knew how to

handle things, but as far as actual equipment went, they didn't have exactly what they needed. The helicopter wasn't equipped for big rescues. The fire trucks did not have anything to reach down into the water to try and get to these people. And the boats couldn't get to them, period. Bystanders grabbed ropes from their cars and tried to attempt to throw them to people in the water. But the ropes weren't long enough. The Potomac is a, it's a huge river. It's not just a small. I mean, the whole plane was submerged, which shows how big this river is. So, but bystanders, we're literally throwing ropes in trying to pull people in. One bystander Roger Olean tied a rope around his waist and attempted to swim out to the people to try and get them. But the rope he had wasn't long enough and the water was so cold that his muscles froze up and he actually had to be dragged back in by the rope when he almost started drowning himself.

Kelly Duncan had managed to grab a life jacket before resurfacing after the crash. And with the help of another person, she ripped open the packaging that it was in and she actually gave it to Nikki. because Nikki had several broken bones on the right side of her body, and she was really struggling to keep herself afloat. She couldn't hold on to the debris. She couldn't. She was really, really struggling. So she actually handed the life jacket to her.

Priscilla Torado was heart-wrenchingly screaming for someone to find her two-month-old son, Jason. Arland could only keep his face just out of the water because, remember, he's still strapped to his seat just barely above the surface. Other survivors tried to help him, but he, He was strapped to his seat and his seatbelt was stuck. And after several attempts, they failed to free him and they had to just wait for rescue personnel to get there. So they're all together. They're all freezing.

They all can barely move. They're all trying to help each other the best they can. While there's hundreds of people surrounding them just off the shoreline that can't get to them. Yeah. Helpless. What are you going to do? Yeah. By 4.22 p.m., rescue attempts had been futile.

millions of people around the country had tuned into the news channel, glued to their TVs, awaiting their rescue. The survivors had been in the water for 21 minutes and had gotten so cold that their arms and legs weren't working properly. It was difficult to hold it onto the debris and to swim, and they were all struggling to stay above water. Finally, the Park Police helicopter came into view and was the first sign of hope for the six people who were in the water. Rescuers saw immediately the dire situation that had unfolded. and they knew that every moment counted in getting them out of that water. Without proper equipment for them either, they had to make a makeshift rescue rope attached to a life ring

for survivors to hold on to. They threw the life ring towards them, offering it to Arlen first, who waved the rope away from him, indicating to give it to someone else first. The first one to grab a hold of it was Bert Hamilton. Once he had a strong grasp on the rope, the helicopter slowly hovered to the shore

until he was in reach of paramedics who grabbed him and immediately administered first aid. Next, they offered the life ring again to Arland, who again waved the rope away, pointing for another survivor to grab a hold of it. Kelly Duncan managed to grab onto the life ring and held on as tightly as she could until she felt her feet touched the ground. And I'll say all of this is on video. You can watch them pulling all of these people out of the water. Wow.

Knowing that time was of the essence, they dropped two life ropes. into the water with hopes to speed up the recovery. Again, Arlen passed on the opportunity to get out of the water, allowing others to go before him. Joe Stiley grabbed one of them while also wrapping his arm around Priscilla Torado. The second rope, Joe's coworker, Nikki, was able to grab initially,

but she was too injured and too weak to hold onto it. Her life jacket kept her afloat, but she wasn't able to hold on. Joe attempted to hold on to Priscilla, but he couldn't. He didn't know it at the time, but all of his fingers were broken. broken, along with several in his arms and shoulders, making it difficult to keep a grasp on her.

Somehow, he did manage to cling to the rope while the helicopter was able to drag him to shore. Priscilla was now struggling in the water. She was screaming for help while hundreds of onlookers watch from the shore, and millions watch from the comfort of their homes. Not only was she struggling from injuries, the cold and exhaustion, but she had been temporarily blinded by the aviation fuel and could not see anything. So when she opened her eyes underwater, it had got the fuel had gotten into her eyes and she was just blindly screaming for help. Oh, God. Rescuers turned their attention to her first because Nikki had a life vest to keep her above the water. They attempted to drop the life ring to her over and over again, but she was too weak to keep a hold of it long enough to be

brought back to shore. At this point, she was just far enough away from the shoreline to be rescued, but close enough that everyone who was standing on the shoreline watching, they were so close they could see her face, like they could see the expression on her face and they could hear what she was screaming. She could no longer swim, and she began to drown in front of everyone. A bystander named Lenny Stutnik,

who had been driving nearby when the plane crashed and jumped out of his car to see the commotion, had been watching in horror as the rescue teams failed to rescue Priscilla. When he saw that she was beginning to drown, He took action himself. Stripping himself of his shoes and heavy clothing, Lenny dove into the water and swam to Priscilla. When he got to her, she was no longer above the water. He pulled her up and dragged her to shore. Wow. This is also all on tape. Like you can watch this on YouTube, him rescuing her.

What an act of bravery. Yeah. And he says in one of the interviews, he was just like, I didn't think about it. I just did it. I saw it. They weren't rescuing her. She was bobbing up and down underwater. She couldn't stay. afloat she was about to die what else was i supposed to do and he just jumped in after that the helicopter crew turned their efforts to niki throwing her the life ring to hold on to but she was still too weak to grab onto it instead the helicopter lowered itself as close to the water as it could without going in and a paramedic on board climbed out onto the skid of the aircraft standing on the skid he grabbed Nikki buy her life jacket and hoisted her up onto it where he held her on it until the helicopter

could drop her off on the shoreline, which I think just shows the skill of one, the paramedic and also the pilot to be able to hover that close to the water. I mean, they're inches from the water and he picks her up and puts her on. And the weather, is this still a snowstorm? Yeah. It's still, like it looks like it calms down at this point. Like it's not actively like huge coming down. down snow, but the visibility is not great. Yeah. I mean, it's even on a perfectly cloudless day, that's amazing. Yeah, it's just like everyone who is involved in this rescue is just they, they were thinking on their feet. I mean, they're throwing these makeshift life rings. They're flying the helicopter, like the feet to the shore, dragging people behind them. Like, it's just utter chaos. And

after they get Nikki, there's only one person left, and that's Arland. So they returned to where debris was where Arland had his hand up and he had passed every time that they had offered him the rope. But it was too late. He was no longer seen above the water and he had disappeared entirely. Oh no. Oh no. Oh no. No. No. Oh, no. No. Arland, who had served two years in the military, had given up his opportunity to be saved to save the others. And the thought behind this was that he knew that it would take much longer to save him because he was already, he was caught on something, he was stuck underwater, he couldn't get out of the seat, he couldn't be dragged by the rope, and he knew that if they took too much time on him, that other people might not make it.

After his death, he was later given an award for his bravery where they said, by not grabbing the rescue line and occupying valuable time in what would have probably been a futile attempt to pull himself free, other survivors who might have perished if they had been in the frigid waters much longer, were saved. Mr. Williams sacrificed his own life. life so that others may live. Mr. Williams' unselfish actions in valiant service reflect the highest credit upon himself and were in keeping the highest traditions of humanitarian service. Both pilots died that day and not a single person in the front of the plane survived. In all, 78 people died, four on the bridge and 74 who were on the plane. There were only five survivors. A major recovery effort

was conducted to recover the bodies of the victims along with the plane. It took crews 11 days to retrieve all the people lost in the crash. The body of Jason Torado, Priscilla's two-month-old son, was the last person who was recovered from the river. After that, they were also able to recover the plane itself. So they have pictures of them pulling the whole aircraft out of the water in each piece that it broke off in. After the crash, a major investigation was launched into the cause of it. There were many other flights that departed that day from the same airport who had no issues. The cause of the crash was found to be a combination of several things, all of which were avoidable. They found that the main cause of the crash was pilot error and due to ice on the wings.

The plane had gone too long before another de-icing when they had taken off. Also, his decision to use the thrust reverses spread ice onto the nose of the plane and other areas interrupting its ability to fly. and they discovered this partially from camera footage that was taken from the airport after of the plane while they were still at the gate. There was also a huge mistake made when the plane indicated that there were issues on the runway and the pilot continued to take off regardless of the first officer's concerns. Because Roger, he could be heard saying, ah, that's not right, is it? And he's like, no, no, it's fine. Right. He like kind of waved him off a little bit. Yeah, even though there were clear indications that something was. right. What also most likely contributed to the crash was both pilots' lack of experience with Boeing

737s and their lack of experience with winter weather conditions. In addition to this, the de-isers themselves had also made a big mistake. They had de-ice the plane at the wrong temperature, believing it was 28 degrees or 4 degrees Celsius, when it was actually 24 degrees or 2 degrees Celsius. While there were mistakes made on this flight, this was actually an industry-wide problem and sparked a major change in winter protocols with the federal aviation administration. The crash forced the FAA to launch a major study to determine the most effective de-icing chemicals and techniques, and they standardized winter operation trainings around the country. Boeing also modified all future and existing 737s to allow the use of the built-in leading edge de-icing systems while on the ground. Additionally,

many airports began installing de-icing facilities closer to the runways. So once they were already out there past the gate, they could still be de-iced while they were waiting to get onto the runway. The crash left a legacy of safety improvements, but it also left a mark on America as the first major plane crash whose immediate aftermath was broadcasted in real time. As for the survivors, they all had different experiences after the crash, but they all spent many months in and out of hospitals for injuries and psychiatric struggles. And I wasn't able to find a ton on everyone, but I did find an article that gave like a brief synopsis of them years later. And so it's not like a full scope of their lives after the crash, but it's just like small things. Bert Hamilton died unexpectedly in his sleep of a heart attack on April 5th, 2002, so 20 years after the crash almost. Nikki Felch was in and out of the hospital for a

full year after the crash and almost lost her foot because of infections, which they think was due to the water from the river. She sought out psychiatric help for a long time that helped her to feel strong enough to deal with the aftermath of the crash. She later died on April 23rd, less than two weeks after Bert Hamilton, after fighting pancreatic cancer. She was 49 years old. Priscilla Torado has been very private since the crash. After losing her husband and baby, she has said very few things to press and has reportedly struggled deeply. She once said to a reporter, it's still hard for me. Sometimes I have my days. I had a good life with Jose. He was really good for me. A decade after the crash, her father was interviewed and said that she was still struggling by saying, after 10 years,

we're beginning to wonder if this will ever work itself out. He reported that she seeks solace and volunteering at animal shelters, but she has never been the same sense. I mean, God. How could you? How could you ever? You know, that's just. so deeply heartbreaking. I mean, for everyone involved, of course, everyone was in a very traumatic experience and probably lost, you know, you don't know who they lost or how they were impacted to what degree, but I mean, her entire life was just taken from her. Yeah. And, yeah, God, I can't even, I can't even imagine. I think that part of what makes her story so, and I mean, the whole thing's horrific and tragic, just knowing that from just what I've said about her,

But when you watch the videos of her in the water and you can see her screaming, like, searching for her baby on live television, it's just like the worst thing you've ever watched. And I just couldn't believe that that was live stream. I don't think there's no reason to watch it. If people are inclined to and they're interested, it's all over YouTube and you can just type in the crash and it will pop up. But it is just like, I wouldn't talk to media either. Like, it's just like. What is there to even say? Say. Yeah. I, for one, will not be watching that. I know where to draw the line with things like that now. I'm just, you know, I'm not the same. I can't do it. But I can definitely relate to wanting to see it. I mean, it's like a human innate curiosity, which is weird and probably why it was live streamed in the first place. Yeah. More good curiosities get the best of us. Yeah. Yep. For sure. But yeah, wow. Okay. Sorry. Go on.

Yeah. I will say when I saw this video, I didn't know. I was just researching and I saw that there was a live or I saw that there was footage and news articles of it. So I was just watching like an old news thing. And it all popped up and I was like, hold on. This was live. Like it was in the middle of my research. Like I didn't realize. But yeah. So that was awful. Joseph Stiley has also done several interviews of that day. The crash left him with bone spurs that caused him chronic pain and forced him to give up constant travel with. his career. He moved to Washington State after his recovery and he's actually, he was in a Gio documentary about this, which I used for part of my research and he's done several other interviews detailing his exact experience. And he talks a lot in the interviews about how how quickly he knew that something was wrong and his thought process throughout the whole, because he was the pilot. Yes. And he's the one had that weird feeling. Well, he realized that he was taking off. The plane, when they were taking off, they weren't moving as quickly as they were supposed to. And he's like, something's wrong here.

Right. Yeah. And then he details when he's in the air, he's like, how do I get out of this plane now? Like, I, he was basically, he talks about how he was counting his blessings in that he thought his life was over. The last thing it said about him in this article that I read was several years old, but it said that he moved to Washington State after he recovered. After the crash, Kelly Duncan didn't return to be a flight attendant.

Instead, she switched careers and became a preschool teacher. Prior to the incident, Kelly was not religious, but she says that she found God that day in the water, and she attributes God to her survival. She worked at a Christian school and became very devoted to her faith. She married a professional tennis player and became a mom of three. She has also done several interviews over the years detailing her account and how much faith changed her life that day and how she's dedicated her life to God after that. While I couldn't find a memorial for this whole incident, there is some remnants of this crash that you can see.

And today, you can visit the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C., where the U.S. Park Police helicopter that was used for the rescue of this entire mission hangs on display. Oh, wow. In. Yeah. So you can still see that. And I'm not sure what they ended up doing with the plane. I don't know if there's remnants of it somewhere, but they have big pictures. I'm imagining that a lot of it went to, they had to do a big investigation on the plane and

for sure and all that. But they have pictures of the whole removal efforts and they have these huge barges that they're picking up this huge plane and carrying it out. And so they recovered all of that. But that is my horrific story of Air Florida Flight 90. Holy moly. Well, I think it's a, I mean, obviously it was awful. But the entire time you were talking.

I was just thinking of how it's kind of a reminder to just be patient when you're traveling with different sorts of delays and things like that. I know a lot of times people take it out on the people that have nothing to do with the actual delay reason. But it doesn't matter who's responsible. It's because by and large, there are things that are going on behind the scenes that are really important. And we may not understand that. And all we get is, okay, well, now I'm going to be late and how does this affect me? But there are reasons behind a very large amount of reasons why flights are delayed or there are different measures that have to, you know, happen. And I just think that that gets lost so often, especially with people who travel a lot.

And it's already a frustrating experience for other reasons. But just next time you have a delay or something, you never know. And I think that hearing stories like this is a good reminder that there are measures in place for a reason. And obviously human error, it seemed, was kind of at play here. At the forefront of this. Yeah. But, you know, regardless, like the de-icing and things, I mean, I can't tell you how many times, especially living in places my whole life that experience weather like that, you know, New England, Colorado, Washington. And even though we don't get a lot of, we didn't get a lot of, like, bad snow and stuff in Seattle. There's other stuff, weather-related stuff. And I've experienced a lot of delays because of that or like de-icing multiple times. Or it's like, and in my mind, I remember being like, we already did this. Like, what the hell?

Like, I'm sitting on a tarmac for an hour and a half what the fuck is going on. But it needs to be done. It's important. Yeah. And it's better to be late than be hurt or in danger. Yeah. And I think it's a good point to be patient. I think it's also a good reminder to be patient with staff too.

I mean, you look at Kelly Duncan and she was under the water fighting for her life and she thought to grab a life vest to give to someone else. Right. There's like these people that are helping you and are trained. And that was part of her like, I don't think like that specifically was probably not part of her training. But she was trained to know that information to grab a life vest in a situation. And because of that, she saved, I mean, she saved Nikki's life. She would have drowned easily. It sounds like and looks like based on the footage, too.

Well, flight attendants, yeah, are there not to give you sun chips. They're there to help you. Very appreciated, although sunship bags should be larger on planes and the sunships itself. But that's not the flight attendants. That's not the point. And don't take it out on them. They are not the manufacturers of sunset. Sun chips. But we do have a gripe with sun chips and the size they are in blames. Yes, we do. But yeah,

they're there to save your life and help you. And they're not just a concierge service. And I mean, hopefully that will be the extent of your interactions with them. Because that means everything's going smoothly and there's no need for them to jump in and save your life. And save your life. But, yeah, again, another thing that gets so lost, you know, it's just... I think that flight attendants are often looked as servers, you know, like in the same level as a server. And it's just so much more than that because, yeah, they're making sure you're comfortable, but they're also trained in life-saving measures on a plane. Like, if you start having a heart attack, that flight attendant is going to be the person who is coming to you first

to help out and do something. And there's just so... many things that flight attendants do behind the scenes and the whole staff. I mean, the pilots, everything that's a whole. Yeah. It's a whole team that's working and it's seeing, I think that it just goes so smoothly that when we're on planes, we forget that. Right. Yeah. Because everything is, it's like a well-oiled machine most of the time. And another last thing about flight attendants, I don't know why I'm like on the soapbox right now. But another thing about them is I think just going back to what you were saying about how she grabbed the life as she didn't have to. It wasn't part of her. It probably wasn't in her handbook, you know, if you're to crash into the Potomac River.

Right. But she did that because I think there's a certain level of like wanting to serve others and putting others first and just that type of person that gets into this type of field that is kind of across the board. Like why wouldn't she do that? Because she's that type of person. And I think pretty much every flight attendant is because that is their job. First and foremost is to help others. And it's kind of like first responders. Like you can be so different, but underneath it all, you all, everyone has the same type of desire in life. And that's to be of service. And I think flight attendants aren't put in that category at first glance. Like you wouldn't think of that. You think of firefighters, EMT. Like I think of Al, like the type of person Al is. And what he's. You does for work. But flight attendants are in that grouping. It's just you don't see them exercise that skill often. Thankfully. Thankfully. But yeah. Well, I feel like this is just a long-winded way to say thank you to all flight attendants and air personnel wherever you are in the airport. If you're the person booking the flights, if you're the person handling luggage, whatever, making this go

correctly and all the way to the actual plane itself and everyone on it. Big like, thank you and we appreciate you. And if you see them, be nice to them. Yeah. But anyone who's like in charge of those snacks. Yeah. Let's figure that out. We have a bone to pick with you.

Yeah. Specifically. Three sun chips aren't enough. The size of my thumb. Like, why are they mini sun chips? So never in my life have I wanted a mini sunship. Well, in the bag is mini, but then there's the air. Chips are many. And then there's air in it. It's like, yes, thank you. I wanted three sun chips for my snack today.

The size of a cheese it. I didn't get cheese hits. I got sun chips. Yeah, for a reason. And cheeseits are thick. Sun chips are thin. So it's a tease more than anything else. So you know, those memes, it's a good morning to everyone but. Thank you to everyone but. Sun chips. Sun chips. And I guess that's where we'll leave you. So, well, I have a photo of me holding a sunship in my hand on a flight. Yeah, you sent it to me. Devastate. I have it too, because you send it to me. Oh, maybe we can post that as like a little comedic relief at the end of this horrible episode. All right. That'll be on you.

Okay. Well, now we'll leave this as it is. And we'll see you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion,

send us an email at Stories at npadpodcast.com. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at National Park After Dark and on Twitter at NPAD podcast. Join our Outsiders only community on Patreon or Apple subscriptions to listen ad-free, unlock monthly bonus episodes, and exclusive content. And remember, when you support our sponsors, you are supporting our show. For our exclusive, exclusive discount codes and source information from today's episode, check out the show notes. For more information on our show, our book recommendations, merch updates, and more. Visit our website at npaddpodcast.com. And please rate, review, and subscribe from wherever you listen to podcasts.

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