Plane Crash Leaves People Trapped In Dangerous Ice Water | Critical Rescue S1 EP10 | Wonder

[Music] out of a treacherous winter sky a Boeing 737 crashes into Washington DC's 14th Street bridge I just remember one minute sitting in my jump seat and in the next instant I'm somewhere else a rescue helicopter is in the air within minutes [Music] time was ticking and we were like come on hurry hurry let's go let's go witnesses to the disaster acted immediately they were hurt and they needed help very very badly efforts to save them inspired valiant acts of bravery by true heroes on the Potomac [Music] [Applause] [Music] washington-dc was used to an occasional winter snowstorm but on January 13th 1982 the city found itself in the midst of a blizzard that by noon had blanketed the nation's capital with nearly 12 inches of snow around 1:30 p.m. Washington's National Airport was closed for snow removal incoming flights were cancelled and outgoing planes were put on a two-hour hole while ground crew struggled to clear the only acceptable instrument runway some airlines canceled flights others continued to board passengers so they would be ready for takeoff when the runway was clear [Music] err Florida went ahead and began boarding passengers on flight 90 to Tampa [Music] they started with those seated at the back of the plane Joe stylee an executive at GTE was also a licensed pilot he was northern a little concerned about the weather but he and his coworker Nikki felch took their seats in row 8 t Alice darton was looking forward to a relaxing vacation in sunny Florida Harland Williams a bank examiner was on his way home from a business trip Burt Hamilton who had a fear of fly sat in the smoking section even though he had been trying to quit flight attendant Kelly Duncan was 22 and the most junior member of the five-person crew none of the passengers expressed concern at that point about the weather people were concerned about delays as far as their schedules win but at that point I didn't hear anyone that was frightened or anything just before 3 p.m. national airport was reopened the tower radioed the captain and said he was in 11th place for takeoff [Music] regulations required that planes that been sitting out in the storm and collecting snow receive extra de-icing a pressurised mixture of hot water and antifreeze while they sat on the tarmac the pilot and first officer made a final check of the aircraft systems pro8 any ice the pilot who previously had some unsatisfactory grades on proficiency checks failed to activate the engine de-icers this oversight meant that slush and frozen debris would remain in the engines hampering a probe vital to monitoring engine power all right ready taxi [Music] just a little more than an hour after its scheduled departure flight 90 was cleared for takeoff Kelly Duncan made one last check of the passengers then took her assigned seat at the rear of the plague when the pilot finally came on the intercom and said flight attendants be seated for departure I was really glad to be going when we started down the runway it seemed very routine but it wasn't that routine the captain in the first officer had only flown together for less than 18 hours and their experience in bad weather was minimal immediately after leaving the ground of the plane started to shake Oh when the passenger turned around and looked at me he looked like he was looking to me for reassurance and I kind of shrugged my shoulders and tightened my seatbelt thinking I don't you know everything's okay you know I really didn't know what was happening the captain advanced the throttle but the plane wasn't responding normally because the pilot forgot to activate the internal engine Dicers a probe had frozen unbeknownst to them they were operating with only 70% of available power the plane was not climbing quick enough the pilot tried to coax it the frozen aircraft could not achieve altitude national airport is very close to the heart of Washington DC and the 14th Street Bridge is one of the busiest thoroughfares [Music] but because of the snowstorm this day government offices in schools had closed early so traffic on the bridge was extra heavy Lenny Skutnik was trying to get home from his job at the Congressional Budget Office traffic was not moving donna's dis crawling become very slow administrative assistant Jeanette Bigelow was nervous it was her first time driving in a snowstorm levels getting worse it was the snow was coming down Jerry got real baby I don't know plan and telling God to take me home sheet metal mechanic roger Olien was on his way home from his job at st. Elizabeth's Hospital the truck I was driving was very old the battery was about dead I was afraid to turn on the heater because I didn't want to drain the battery too much and I couldn't even get the radio to work so I wanted to get home and then the unimaginable [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] at 4:01 p.m. after being airborne for only 24 seconds air Florida 90 with a total of 79 passengers and crew on board slammed into the 14th Street bridge it sheared the tops off several vehicles and broke into sections as it crashed into the icy waters of the Potomac River helpless air traffic controllers watch flight 90 disappear off the radar screen United States Park Police woods they immediately placed an emergency call to Park Police Headquarters they needed to verify that a plane had gone down and in the bad weather only a helicopter team could do it attention all units priority attention all units prior work medic Ron Bailey took the call Eagles Nest says I think we're looking for he faked I know we're looking for a 737 and I almost dropped the phone I said oh you got to be kidding me pilot Don usher and medic Jean Windsor wasted no time there was a lot of her and she getting that aircraft launched in over there especially given the conditions the ice on the Potomac was very thick and it was shore to shore we knew that there was no way a boat was going to get in there and get any survivors [Music] commuter Lenny Skutnik didn't see the crash but the commotion on the 14th Street bridge got his attention we're probably halfway across the bridge and noticed some people looking over the guardrail as soon as we got within view of the river we could see what was going on it's obvious that some type of aircraft came and crashed there was a debris and broken ice it was mess the plane had carried 26,000 pounds of jet a fuel which emptied into the river but there was no evidence of fire incredibly there appeared to be survivors in the water passengers Alice Darden bird Hamilton Mickey felch and Joe stylee along with flight attendant Kelly Duncan were floating amongst the debris all had been sitting in the back of the plane I don't remember an actual impact where I remember hitting I just remember one minute sitting in my jump seat and then the next instant I was somewhere else and I started moving my body and just Bob to the surface of the water my initial reaction was that I was just gonna swim out but I just wanted to hold on to something long enough just to get my thoughts together and by the time I finally got on to a piece of metal there was just no way I was gonna let it go of it by that time I was really scared then they saw arlen williams alive but tangled in cables from the aircraft which tracked him in his seat I was thinking you know somebody needs to come and help us I saw people up on the bridge and I thought you know they're just watching us and I became I was really angry thinking they're just gonna watch us die Roger Olean had reached the 14th Street bridge moments after the crash I stopped and get out of my car crossed over the highway and made my way down towards the river firefighters and paramedics hadn't arrived yet but bystanders had begun their own rescue efforts there were already people on the bank who seemed to be tying something together to make a rope of some sort but the plane itself was I would guess at least a hundred yards from the shore and there'd be no way to get a rope out to the plane the only other option was just to hop in there and then swim out to the plane I was overcome by the fact that these people out there in the water were helpless they were frightened they were hurt and they needed help very very badly I guess it was just this overwhelming desire to try and do something as opposed to doing nothing which I just couldn't live with the people on shore tied their makeshift rope around ol Ian's waist he had volunteered to brave the icy waters I knew the water would be cold but I wasn't prepared for exactly how cold it was it was almost like being electrified it was just so immediate and and the shock of hitting that cold water I thought at first maybe I could walk on the bottom of the river in between the ice chunks but unfortunately the minute you left the shore the water was dirty so there was no walking the only thing I was focused on was getting out to the plane I mean focus to the point where I realized that my hands were so cold I couldn't feel it anymore and I remember going through my mind I wonder if I'll ever be able to use my hands again and and just thinking well that doesn't matter I got to keep going and about that point this rope thing that I had tied onto me they had reached the end of it and they told me to wait until they tied some more stuff on and I was pretty cold I I didn't want to wait but I didn't have any choice at that point I tried to untie it and get away from that rope but my hands were too frozen I couldn't untie it so I was locked into that and I just had to wait for them to extend this rope it took 15 minutes for the part police helicopter to arrive at the bridge when pilot Donna sure and medic Jean Windsor had left their hanger visibility was so bad that usher had to use the tops of streetlights as a guide but as it turned out they got a lucky break right as we arrived at the 14th Street bridge the weather broke and just for about 10 or 15 minutes the ceiling lifted up the snow stopped blowing and we could see the whole scene from national airport all the way up to the 14th Street bridge and then the ice became very obviously we could see that something had hit the river shattered the ice in all directions and then there was one spot where there was very little ice and there was a fuselage what appeared to be some piece of an aircraft with people hanging onto it only usher in Windsor had a full view of the disaster below [Music] no one knew how many people were injured or dead on the bridge nor at the six people visible in the 34 degree water were the only survivors of flight 90 [Music] sort ly after takeoff from Washington DC's National Airport air Florida flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street bridge as the plane went down it toppled a truck and sliced the roofs off several cars killing four people out of 79 passengers and crew on board the plane only six survived the crash they were now clinging to life in the frozen Potomac River I was really kicking my legs and doing everything that I thought would be the right thing to do to keep myself moving because it just was so painful to be in that freezing water I was really thinking you know I can't help anybody else there was a woman next to me she had a life jacket in her hand I opened it with my mouth it was in no way any kind of a heroic effort rescue and medical teams fought their way through the immobilized traffic to reach the bridge in the river bank they quickly realized they had no way of getting to the stranded survivors in the water emergency rescue teams worked frantically to help the injured on the bridge [Music] the roof of Janette Bigelow's car was ripped off [Music] miraculously she was alive yeah I remember too much after that they found me I woke up I was in the hospital the impact of the plane had torn away a 41 foot section of the bridges sidewall barrier and railing Bigelow knew she was fortunate I believe it is a garden happened because if you will see how my car was it was really messed up pretty bad everything was crushed beside to see that was sitting it down below in the river the situation was becoming even more critical the survivors had been in the 34 degree water for over 20 minutes for flight attendant Kelly Duncan this was a moment of truth you kind of evaluate your life I was young at the time but I remember thinking you know God is watching this I thought you know why should God help me why should he all of a sudden help me because I've never given any thoughts about God at all Roger Olien who had been driving home from work when the crash occurred continued to risk his life in the freezing water [Music] tied to a makeshift lifeline he struggled to make his way to the survivors I could hear them but I couldn't see him very well I was completely exhausted and completely frozen I guess it entered my mind that if I keep going I'm not gonna leave this river and I took a second to think things over and I could not turn my back on those people out there so I just made for that last ten feet at about that point maybe I was five feet or so away from the plane I heard helicopter cover part police helicopter pilot Donna sure and medic Jean Windsor quickly realized they were the only hope for the survivors of flight 90 we had the fun group of five and then one person separated from them by a portion of the fuselage and we saw one guy kind of flailing around and the ice by himself and we went right to that individual because we figured here's one that's out in the open so we've got to do something with him right away at that point that individual began going backwards towards the shore and when we looked he was actually tied up with ropes and all kinds of other objects and the people on shore were reeling him back in by the point that I got pulled back to the shore my hands of course were numb and so was the rest of me I couldn't feel much of anything at that point I reached the bank and I found right away that I had a lot of trouble walking and I was shaking so bad that I couldn't control it once Donna sure and Jean Windsor saw that Olien was safe they focused their attention on getting the survivors out Jeannie's job was to decide how to rescue these folks or get them into the aircraft which we really didn't think we could do because of the circumstances we couldn't get him inside so we had to get them from where they were to the shore but my job was to keep the aircraft flying flying low for a rescue was always dangerous but this one would be even trickier so all the time we were moving we had to watch where we were moving and what was being picked up because the last thing we needed was debris to come through the rotor system damaged our aircraft and put us in the water with the survivors passenger Bert Hamilton was closest to the helicopter and I was tying a loop in the rope in the helicopter to lift the people out one of the persons that was in the water came over to the helicopter threw his arms around this kid but the crew knew given the man's nearly frozen condition he would lose his grip if they tried to take him back to shore and I opened the door and told him no you can't do that of course you can't hear one another at that point but I just told him no no no and he understood and let go and with that I finished tying the rope it threw in the loop into it and lifted him out of the river as they approach the shore the helicopter rescue team knew they faced another potential danger they had to hover just above the shoreline in order to transfer the survivors to the ground personnel but given this low altitude the rotors might strike one of the people standing on the bank and so Don got on the outside speaker and told them to get back get back that rotors going to cut you in two and it was it was right about midsection on his people standing up there he had to keep them back and it took a heck of a long time to get this gentleman out of there broke because of the precarious footage there on the on the riverbank [Music] bird Hamilton was now on dry land the extent of his injuries yet to be determined [Music] there were still five people in the river clinging to the wreckage they had been in the freezing water for over 20 minutes and at any moment any one of them could lose consciousness and go under [Music] and the airplane crash in the nation's capital error Florida's flight night he had gone down moments after takeoff the wreckage was now floating in the Potomac River along with five remaining survivors commuter Lenny Skutnik was on the 14th Street bridge he felt compelled to help we've all watched things on the news of other people do heroic things firemen running into burning buildings it makes us question ourselves do we could would we ever in a situation like that be able to to do anything medic Jean Windsor and helicopter pilot Don usher had been able to get one survivor to shore they knew that time was working against them four survivors were floating free but Arlen Williams was hopelessly trapped in his seat amid the wiry debris the survivors had now been in the freezing water for over 20 minutes they this looked dazed and were moving very slowly holding on to the wreckage and keeping afloat the helicopter crew tried to rescue Arlene Williams next this man looked the worst of all the people that were in the water had a horrendous lunch show on his head and I threw the rope right on him and he let it go to the other folks flight attendant Kelly Duncan was rescued next i pulled the rope around myself and it just carried me out and at no time did I feel I'm gonna fall off I don't think I can hold on I just felt that I was being lifted out I remember hands reaching out for me when we got to the shore and it was at that point that I really felt like I could just let go because I knew people had me there's no way for me to describe that to anybody who has never been in that situation who really thinks one minute that they are going to die and when someone comes and changes that you know there's no way to explain you know how pressure to have you are two survivors from flight 90 were now on shore but pilot Donna sure was afraid that their rescue was taking too long it was very frustrating hovering over the shore while they had to get him back out of those ropes the folks on the shore they're doing everything as fast as they could possibly do when to the circumstances and but it just to us it seemed like it was taking forever [Music] rescue personnel on the ground through Windsor a ring boy with a rope attached he and usher could now try to pull out of the water more than one survivor at a time when we met back the third time same thing this man in the middle of the records try to get him to take the rope and he just passed it off Nicky felch took the toll her boss Joe stylee grabbed the ring with one arm and Alice Darden with the other it was a noble gesture but his muscles were so cold he could barely hold on [Applause] we couldn't lift them and into the air because none of them were secured in a way that they could that they were going to be safer they were just gonna fall off if we tried to lift him up so as we began now there was no way to get them across but to drag them across half-white from the wreckage to the shore the lady with the flotation device on who was on the rope lost her grip on the rope [Music] nici felch was now stranded in the middle of the river the life-saving vest barely managed to hold her above the water jo stylee fought to hold on to alice Dartmouth the collision with the ice chunks actually broke stylee's ribs the stress finally was too much Darden could not hold on to him and he lost his grip as well [Music] [Applause] the helicopter crew continued to drag styling ashore knowing the two women desperately needed help [Music] uh sure quickly turned around and went back to pick up Alice Dart that's where we knew we were going to have our problems a combination of hypothermia injuries shock all of those things were kind of really affecting her ability or perception about where she was and what she was doing the 26,000 pounds of jet fuel that it spilled out on impact was floating everywhere this toxic substance was burning Darden's eyes and blinding her when we got closer to try to affect her rescue the second time I could see the eyes were just blank they weren't looking up then I dropped the throwing ring on the end of the rope and hit her with it a couple times and she found it took hold of it Jean said go so we began and we pulled her off of the flow and she held on but as I got to sure again I had to lift up to get the rotor system clear the people that were on the river bank and that pulled the grass and she just kind of slid out of her hands Alice Darden could no longer help with her own rescue and she was losing the strength needed to stay afloat [Music] the soul helicopter that had reached the air Florida 90 crash site continued to fight inclement weather and the clock three survivors of the crash had now been in 34 degree water for nearly 30 minutes and no one could predict how much longer they could survive Arlen Williams who was trapped in the wreckage had refused the rescue helicopters lifeline twice putting the other passengers before himself Nikki belch was kept afloat by a life vest and it drifted to the middle of the river paramedic Jean Windsor was trying to get Alice Darden to grab on to a life-saving ring but she was blinded by jet fuel time was running against this hypothermia had no idea what kind of injuries they had but they had to be pretty substantial she finally grabbed the hold of the ring buoy so Jean said go however bystander Lenny Skutnik would not given up his vigil watching and wondering if he had the right stuff but see that she was in trouble I knew she was gonna let go and that that was it that she helped lose too much to take within seconds Darden lost her grip on the ring she let go of it she kind of rotated over and was trying to continue swimming but it was clear she was not going to stay up for very long we're now at a crisis what are we going to do with this how we going to how we going to do this one I never really stopped to think about whether I was gonna go in or not it was more of a human instinct type thing I just did it as I got to her it was eerie it was like to see in a horror movie if somebody's been drowned in a bathtub with her face is just under the water she was going under [Music] when I grabbed her and just started pushing his stroke and pushing his stroke and you know nothing real fancy just trying to get her to the bank a fireman had had rope tied around him grabbed her and then I swam off to the side and made my way up the amp embankment I was in a situation where I I did something and I feel good about that that I had it in to me to help another human being [Music] there were now two survivors left in the water the helicopter crew had a critical decision to make we knew we still had one on the fuselage but the one on the fuselage we assumed was still secure and was above water so we had to go for the one that was now open the one female passenger that had drifted away from the fuselage and that she had fallen off the rope earlier on that try to get them all in at once so we went for her paramedic Jean Windsor could see that Niki felch was exhausted tried a couple of times with her to get her to take a hold of the rope and she just looks so stunned at that point told Donna since you know she's not responding very well let's go down and get her Windsor stepped out on the icy skid risking his own safety I went probably to bet this far from her head with the skid of the aircraft and I watched until I was a piece of ice in front of me that I set the toe of the skid on this little piece of ice and looked back and she was right there with jingle and then he grabbed her they pulled her up onto his boot and he was holding on to the back of her clothing and said go we just lift her right up and took her right back in because I had a pretty good idea he was just holding on for dear life with that one Don did take it up he got us out of there and it was it was a real test for that helicopter because we'd never done anything like that with that Oh copter five survivors were now on shore the helicopter crew turned around and went for Arlen Williams now we've got one more rescue to do and that is to go back out to the fuselage and get that six person the aircraft had shifted and it sank a little bit into turn and we couldn't find him so he went all the way around the aircraft hovered around looking specifically to try and see if we could see him even at the water service or just below the water surface and couldn't sample all we could see was just the mangled the fuselage and everything length the metal he was gone he was nowhere to be seen I felt like the Dickens right then it's just like human nature that people want to get out of that situation and him passing it off makes you wonder arlynn Williams had made the ultimate sacrifice to help his fellow survivors Windsor an usher had done all that they could the total time from our arrival unseen until the last victim was put on shore was ten minutes to us in the aircraft it seemed like three hours we got back to the hangar I called my wife at home that I started telling her about the six man that we could not rescue and I I just busted I crying right at that point because unable to affect his rescue and I still get choked up about it early while the survivors were out of the icy water they still weren't out of danger [Music] in here they were suffering from multiple injuries and severe exposure bringing someone back from a hypothermic state has risks of its own [Music] the horrendous crash of air Florida flight 90 into Washington DC's 14th Street Bridge on a snowy January day a twist the staff at National Orthopaedic Hospital into disaster mode [Applause] [Music] they were told that a large passenger plane had crashed survivors from the plane and injured commuters from the bridge were on their way dr. Girardi an orthopedic surgeon was on call our disaster drill was such that we set up the lobby of the hospital as the primary area the emergency room wouldn't be nearly big enough to treat to be a triage area dr. Richard Schwartz was chief of Medicine and the medical disaster coordinators we had absolutely no idea what we were going to encounter that day we didn't know how many had been killed on the plane or how many had been rescued in addition to the five plane crash survivors Lenny Skutnik and Roger Olien the to civilian rescuers who had plunged into the water to help save them were also brought in [Music] my immediate reaction was oh my lord if you know of they're bringing seven at a time we were going to be overwhelmed very early because it was a small Hospital 125 beds the sad part about it was that that was the first and last ambulance that we saw with patients the survivors were suffering from multiple injuries and severe hypothermia the overwhelming reaction was how cold these people were I don't think they were feeling pain really from their fractures they were feeling the pain of hypothermia flight attendant Kelly Duncan was the only crewmember to survive the crash I didn't really know of any injuries that I had I didn't feel pain I remember shaking and shaking and shaking and just my body just being uncontrollable her temperature had sunk to 81 degrees she was hovering near death hypothermia is a big problem because the body begins to shut down and the major aspect of that problem is actually rewarming we couldn't warm them from the outside because then their core temperature would still remain cold and there would be a differential and that can cause electrical instability in the heart you can have cardiac arrest cardiac standstill so we ended up warming the patient's by running warm saltwater through their stomachs to warm their core temperature in addition to hypothermia most of the survivors had sustained multiple fractures these proved to be relatively simple to treat the amazing thing was these patients were in shock both from the water and from their trauma we could pretty much manage their fractures right there without any anesthesia or anything because they were basically anesthetized from the cold water so we stabilized the fractures put them in splints and basically moved them out of that area in a fairly quick period of time Alice Darden and Nikki fell stabilized overnight and eventually made full recoveries but Joe stylee invert Hamilton required extensive physical therapy to regain their movement it was surprising to me that anybody survived that crash and I think the most noteworthy thing to me was at least three of the individuals two of whom I saw were in the brace position volunteer rescuers Roger Olien and Lenny Skutnik were treated for hypothermia and released that evening after five days Kelly Duncan was able to leave intensive care because of shock she did not realize what had happened to her until she heard a news report on television I heard him say air Florida and then I heard him say the fact that we had hit a bridge and that so many people had died and they were still recovering bodies and I just remember just tears just rolling to hell my face and just filling up my ears because I I think that was this the first time that it really registered what exactly had happened the magnitude of it for commuters died from the crash into the bridge Jeanette Bigelow was a lucky survivor I had like six seven stitches in my head the doctor told my mom that will be two inches deep I would have died cuz would I be hit my head it would hit my skull would it kill me miraculous her condition was absolutely miraculous she had some glass injuries to her scalp and a cut on her ear but was otherwise doing quite well [Music] out of 79 passengers and crew onboard air Florida flight 90 only six survived the crash [Music] through the extraordinary efforts of many Jean Windsor and pilot Donna sure five eventually made it home I'm a helicopter pilot who flew a mission did what I had to do got through it and flew back to the hair and moved on to the next thing the hero is the person who's never expected to do it and then does it not the person that's paid to do it not the person that does it and they're trained to do it and they expected to do it the hero is the person who it's inside and you don't know it's there until it happens just two weeks ago in the midst of a terrible tragedy on the Potomac we saw again the spirit of American heroism at its finest Lenny Skutnik I was invited to attend President Reagan's first State of the Union address this put me in shocked I was just dumbstruck to me it was a very human thing to do my instincts told me to go help the girl and that's what I did [Music] President Reagan also thanked Roger Olien the first bystander to jump into the freezing Potomac after the plane crash like the other heroes that day Olien downplays his act of courage the way I looked at the incident it was 25 minutes out of the rest of my life and even though a lot of attention was focused on those 25 minutes I was pretty much who I was before and after and I didn't want to get any big ideas about myself or anything that I might have done in that particular 25 minutes I'm just a guy who did what he thought was the thing to do at the time air Florida passenger Arlen Williams paid the ultimate price for his heroism in memory of his fatal self-sacrifice by passing up his turn to be rescued until last the 14th Street bridge was renamed in his honor [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Wonder

Views: 1,446,252

Keywords: Wonder, critical rescue, wonder channel, critical rescue wonder, critical rescue full episodes, natural disaster, survival videos, extreme survival, wonder critical rescue, critical rescue s1 ep10, wonder critical rescue s1 ep10, real responders, survival docs, survival documentary, extreme survival videos, plane crash, wonder survival videos, i shouldn't be alive, bridge collapse

Id: ozcDMHBQ7HQ

Length: 49min 3sec (2943 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020