Just about every fatal plane crash has a "ghost story" involved.  A
fantastic story that I watched unfold live on television (and seen
many times on re-runs) was the rescue attempts of the six survivors of
the Air Florida crash into the Potomac River in Washington, DC.   I am
recalling this from feeble memory and may have a few facts fuzzy, but
this is my story and I'm sticking to it.
.
The morning of Thursday, January 13, 1986, started as a usual day. 
Snow flurries were forecasted, but people went to school and work as
normal.  By late morning, however, the snow fall was really nasty. 
Schools, businesses, and local/federal governments shut down and
people told to go home.  Because of the mass exodus, snowplows were
unable to do their job and the streets and roads became massive
gridlocks.  I left my office shortly before noon and did not reach
home until after 4 pm.  On a regular day, this would have taken only
45 minutes.  Just before arriving home a radio news bulletin announced
the crash of an airliner.  As soon as I reached home I turned on the
television and all local stations where covering (or trying to get
film crews to) the scene.
.
Air Florida, Flight 90, was due to leave Washington/National Airport
at 2:15pm to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  Because of runway snow plowing
and de-icing, the plane didn't depart until 4pm.  Pilot error caused
the 737-222 aircraft to crash on take off.
.
A de-icing procedure was not followed correctly.  When the plane
lifted from the runway, ice built up on the wing caused the nose to
lift and the plane to stall, thus dropping from 500 feet and
tail-slapping the center span of the jammed-packed 14th Street Bridge.
The forward momentum took the plane right into the icy Potomac River.
.
When the tail section hit the bridge it wiped out 97 feet of guard
railing and parapet.  It flattened seven automobiles, killing four
people.  Traffic was at a standstill before the crash, now the
situation was totally hopeless.  Commuters on the bridge and people on
the river bank could only watch in horror as the broken plane went
under the ice.  The broken tail section was the only part visible
above the swift flowing ice.
.
Of the 74 passengers and crew of five, only five people and one ghost
clung to the wreckage.  Eventually, fire/rescue emergency vehicles
arrived on the Virginia side of the river.  They were helpless to
offer assistance.  The ice was not thick enough to venture out onto
the river and the ice near the shore prevented whatever available
boats to reach the stranded survivors a mere 150 yards away.
.
Enough praise can not be given to crew of the US Park Police Eagle One
Rescue Helicopter.  With weather conditions unsuitable for flight, the
helicopter navigated with almost zero visibility through the blizzard
and gusting winds to the crash site.  They lowered the helicopter
close enough to plucked the first person from the tail section of the
wreck and delivered him to the awaiting medical/rescue squads on the
Virginia shore.  But the wind and flurries deemed it too dangerous to
repeat this procedure.
.
So instead, for the next five trips back to the tail section they
lowered a lifeline and vest.  The freezing water and injuries
sustained in the crash made it tremendously impossible for the
survivors to grab the vest.  One person on the tail section, obviously
healthier than the others, repeatedly took the life vest and placed it
around the others.
.
I watched this tragic event and valiant rescue efforts live on
television.  When the young stewardess slipped from the life ring and
fell mercilessly back into and onto the icy river, my heart thumped in
my throat.  How I wished I could have had an OOB experience, and
magically fly over and pull that poor frozen woman out of that bone
chilling water.
.
(Side note:  Martin Skutnick, a dim-witted government file clerk
standing on shore had the same thought I did.  Except he jumped into
the river intending to swim out and rescue the lady.  He just didn't
think before he jumped just how cold the water really was.  He didn't
come near to rescuing the stewardess.  Luckily a fireman risked his
life and saved Skutnick and another saved the stewardess.)
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Meanwhile, five of the six people made it out of the river.  When
Eagle One went back to pick up the sixth, the healthy good Samaritan,
he was nowhere to be found.
.
Okay, here's the ghostly part.  The people who saw the good Samaritan
(the other five survivors, the Eagle One crew, and enhanced television
and photograph pictures) identified him from pictures of those on the
plane. The problem: the person they identified, when the bodies were
recovered, was still strapped in his seat and from his injuries
preclude that he died on impact (no water in his lungs).
.
That sure was a strange day in Washington, DC.  The Air Florida crash
happened at 4 o'clock and at 4:30 the Metro (subway) experienced its'
first fatal accident when three people were killed.  Neither accident
related to the other.  However, the whole city was at a standstill.
The streets were blocked with snow and abandoned cars.  The main
bridge from the District into Virginia blocked.  Air traffic being
diverted.  And, the main (busiest) subway line shut down.
.
BTW, the center span of the 14th Street Bridge was renamed the "Arland
D. Williams, Jr. Memorial Bridge".  This is the person "officially"
accredited to be the good Samaritan.  Although he did not look like
the sixth person on the tailsection wreckage, his body contained water
in his lungs.
.
Respectfully,


Gordon Lee