Air Florida Flight 90

"Flight 90" redirects here. For the film, see Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac. For the 1963 test spaceflight, see X-15 Flight 90.

Air Florida Flight 90
An Air Florida Boeing 737, similar to the aircraft involved
Accident
DateJanuary 13, 1982 (1982-01-13)
SummaryStalled and crashed shortly after take off due to lack of de-icing, and pilot error
SitePotomac River, Washington, D.C.
38°52′35″N 77°02′33″W / 38.87639°N 77.04250°W / 38.87639; -77.04250
Total fatalities78
Total injuries9
Aircraft
Aircraft typeBoeing 737-222[a]
OperatorAir Florida
IATA flight No.QH90
ICAO flight No.FLA90
Call signPALM 90
RegistrationN62AF
Flight originWashington National Airport (now known as Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport)
StopoverTampa International Airport[1]
DestinationFort Lauderdale–Hollywood Int'l Airport[2]
Occupants79
Passengers74
Crew5
Fatalities74
Injuries5
Survivors5
Ground casualties
Ground fatalities4
Ground injuries4

Air Florida Flight 90 was a scheduled U.S. domestic passenger flight operated by Air Florida from Washington National Airport (now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) to Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport, with an intermediate stopover at Tampa International Airport. On January 13, 1982, the Boeing 737-200 registered as N62AF crashed into the 14th Street Bridge over the Potomac River just after take off from Washington National Airport.[3]

Striking the bridge, which carries Interstate 395 between Washington, D.C., and Arlington County, Virginia, it hit seven occupied vehicles and destroyed 97 feet (30 m) of guard rail[4]: 5  before plunging through the ice into the Potomac River. The aircraft was carrying 74 passengers and five crew members. Only four passengers and one crew member (flight attendant Kelly Duncan) were rescued from the crash and survived. Another passenger, Arland D. Williams, Jr., assisted in the rescue of the survivors, but drowned before he could be rescued. Four motorists on the bridge were killed. The survivors were rescued from the icy river by civilians and professionals. President Ronald Reagan commended these acts during his State of the Union speech 13 days later.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the cause of the accident was pilot error. The pilots failed to switch on the engines' internal ice protection systems, used reverse thrust in a snowstorm prior to takeoff, tried to use the jet exhaust of a plane in front of them to melt their ice, and failed to abandon the takeoff even after detecting a power problem while taxiing and having ice and snow build up on the wings.


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  1. ^ "Afterward". The New York Times Magazine. [dead link]
  2. ^ "January 13 This Day in History" Archived March 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine, The History Channel.
  3. ^ "Plane crashes into Potomac". History (U.S. TV channel). Retrieved October 30, 2015.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference NTSB-AAR-82-08 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).