Plane collision near Washington DC recalls memory of a similar incident 43 years ago
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A plane collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport Wednesday evening has recalled the memory of a similar tragedy nearly 43 years ago. Around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, an American Airlines passenger plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and landed in the Potomac River. Sixty-seven people were presumed dead, including 60 passengers, four crew members and three military personnel in the helicopter. On Jan. 13, 1982, a Florida airplane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington D.C. and plummeted into the Potomac River. In total, 78 people died that day -- 74 flight passengers and four drivers who were on the bridge. "It took me back 23 years, practically," said Robert Pugh of Heathsville in Northumberland County. "There was a little bit of sadness, of course, for the losses, but it was intriguing at the same time, and I felt the obligation, you know, as a photographer, I felt the obligation sort of catch what I could just in case it'd be useful." Pugh was a photojournalist then for the Associated Press and Washington Post and went out and took pictures of the 1982 incident the morning after. Pugh provided those pictures to 8News you see below: "You think about all of the other the people who are the family members of those who were in the plane. It's awful," Dr. Marian Moser Jones told 8News about Wednesday night's incident. "I did go to sleep hopeful that there might be some survivors because I am older, and I do remember this 1982 crash in which there were survivors." Moser Jones was 12 years old during the time of the incident nearly 43 years ago, but remembers the moments one's mind may find difficult to forget. "I remember from the time there was dramatic footage of helicopters going over the Potomac, handing down lines, and there were people floating in the Potomac very much alive, trying to grasp on to the lines," she said. "The most dramatic was there was a woman who had tried to grab on to the helicopter alive, and then she let go. I mean, because it was a snowstorm." While Wednesday evening's incident will bring back the memory of 1982's tragedy, Moser Jones points it is important to remember the differences along with the similarities. "This was a military civilian disaster was that other one was really about aviation safety," Moser Jones explained. "We think back to the '82 crash, but also when we think more analytically about this — we need to look at what is the history of aviation, military and civilian aviation safety and those two things together." Four passengers and one crew member survived the plane crash in 1982.
VENN
RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — A plane collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport Wednesday evening has recalled the memory of a similar tragedy nearly 43 years ago.
Around 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 29, an American Airlines passenger plane and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided and landed in the Potomac River.
Sixty-seven people were presumed dead, including 60 passengers, four crew members and three military personnel in the helicopter.
On Jan. 13, 1982, a Florida airplane crashed into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington D.C. and plummeted into the Potomac River.
In total, 78 people died that day -- 74 flight passengers and four drivers who were on the bridge.
"It took me back 23 years, practically," said Robert Pugh of Heathsville in Northumberland County. "There was a little bit of sadness, of course, for the losses, but it was intriguing at the same time, and I felt the obligation, you know, as a photographer, I felt the obligation sort of catch what I could just in case it'd be useful."
Pugh was a photojournalist then for the Associated Press and Washington Post and went out and took pictures of the 1982 incident the morning after.
Pugh provided those pictures to 8News you see below:
"You think about all of the other the people who are the family members of those who were in the plane. It's awful," Dr. Marian Moser Jones told 8News about Wednesday night's incident. "I did go to sleep hopeful that there might be some survivors because I am older, and I do remember this 1982 crash in which there were survivors."
Moser Jones was 12 years old during the time of the incident nearly 43 years ago, but remembers the moments one's mind may find difficult to forget.
"I remember from the time there was dramatic footage of helicopters going over the Potomac, handing down lines, and there were people floating in the Potomac very much alive, trying to grasp on to the lines," she said. "The most dramatic was there was a woman who had tried to grab on to the helicopter alive, and then she let go. I mean, because it was a snowstorm."
While Wednesday evening's incident will bring back the memory of 1982's tragedy, Moser Jones points it is important to remember the differences along with the similarities.
"This was a military civilian disaster was that other one was really about aviation safety," Moser Jones explained. "We think back to the '82 crash, but also when we think more analytically about this — we need to look at what is the history of aviation, military and civilian aviation safety and those two things together."
Four passengers and one crew member survived the plane crash in 1982.
