Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac

I remembered the crash vividly and how there were only five survivors. I also remember this movie very well. The cast was pictured sitting around, looking very serious, holding life preservers and flotation rings. There was no scene of the crash, we see a man in a car looking up at the unseen plane, then the screen goes black and we hear the crash; fade to commercial. Comes back and we see people running to the bridge and the edge of the river.

Before the crash, we are handed the stories of Jamie Rose, Richard Backus, Richard Masur, Donelly Rhodes, Barry Corbin, Stephen Macht and Dinah Manoff. The only survivor we are not told about is Kelly Duncan, played by Kathleen Wilhote. This crash was the one that began pointing out the survivors came from the end of the plane, and all we see of Kelly Duncan is that she is seated in the very rear of the plane. The makers of this film were too eager to tell this story, something that, thanks to the Amy Fisher movies, we have hopefully seen the last of. Because of this, the part of rescuer Lenny Skutnik was reduced to an absolute minimum with no emphasis whatsoever. Skutnik felt the movie was exploitive of the survivors, among them, Prisilla Tirado, played by Dinah Manoff, whom he had rescued. Therefore the part of Richard Masur came into prominence. An outstanding moment is when relations are trying to find out if their loved ones have survived. We see Ken Olin, who knows his fiancée cannot have lived. The nurse asks who he is waiting for. He tells her 'Nikki'. She replies the female survivors are Kelly and Prisilla and Pat.

He leaps to his feet and says she goes by the name Pat. From there, we venture to Corbin's survival and learn that Pat Finch, played by Jeannetta Arnette would walk down the aisle at her wedding one year later. Except for the Skutnik problem, this could have been an enlightening movie.

I remember this day, 13 January 1982, vividly. I had been working the day shift for AT&T at 30 E St S.W. in Washington DC. We received warning that the weather was turning extremely bad, and the company made a safety decision to close and have people go home early in order to beat the dangerous weather predicted. I was a member of a car pool traveling from Washington DC to Woodbridge, VA where we lived. As we started to leave DC, the snow began coming down so fast that it was like traveling in fog. Visibility was very poor. As we approached the 14th Street bridge, we became aware of something serious happening. There was a lot of commotion and emergency vehicles everywhere. The traffic was stopped on the bridge, and at first we weren't aware of what happened. As the traffic was not moving, we all exited our vehicle to see what the problem was. We were about mid span on the bridge when it was closed. It was a horrific scene that greeted us. There was the Airliner in the water/ice with only the tail showing. Watching the movie brought this scene back to me. The water froze over almost as soon as the ice was broken. I remember seeing someone in what looked like a gray flight suit frozen in the river. This still haunts me to his day. This film was very true to the events of that incident, and had it not been for a few heroic individuals, especially the clerk who dove in the freezing water to rescue the stewardess, and an awfully good National Parks Service Helicopter Pilot, whose helicopter skids actually touched below the water, I don't think anyone would have survived. It was sad to see all the emergency responders on the shoreline in confusion as they were not able to communicate with one another. Their emergency frequencies were all different. This movie definitely deserves the Emmie's it was nominated for, and should be out on DVD.

This TV-movie about the January 13, 1982 crash of Air Florida Flight #90 into the Potomac river is for the most part a well-made docudrama surrounding many of the people involved in the story. Legal hurdles prevented some stories from being depicted, in particular that of Lenny Skutnik who dove into the river to rescue Priscilla Tirado from drowning. Skutnik felt that any movie about the event was exploitative and thus refused to let his story be dramatized. His scene is confined to a look-alike actor (billed only as "Man On Shore" in the original credits) jumping in at the appropriate moment. However, compensation is offered by focusing on the more neglected story of mental hospital worker Roger Olian (Richard Masur) who first swam out to give the trapped passengers enocouragement before the helicopters arrived. His story is as remarkable as Skutnik's ultimately and the TV movie allowed those of us who weren't familiar with his efforts to see how there was more than one hero that day who jumped into the Potomac to provide help.

The docudrama approach with no special effects of the plane crash managed to work well because there is a desire to keep things as authentic as possible, which includes a large use of actual news footage of the rescue operations, which is blended in seamlessly with the scenes of actors in the tank. Gil Melle's score is a bit awkward and the most dated aspect of the production, but still has some hauntingly beautiful sections when he gets away from the synths.

A few postscripts to the story of the survivors. Nikki Felch's marriage to David Frank did not last and she sadly died of pancreatic cancer in 2002, just two weeks after Burt Hamilton also passed away. Joe Stiley was forced into early retirement by his injuries and lives in Washington state. Priscilla Tirado has not granted an interview in more than ten years and remains traumatized by the events that saw her lose her husband and baby. By far, the happiest story has been that of Flight Attendant Kelly Duncan (who is given the least attention of any of the survivors in the movie, with greater focus coming on the other two flight attendants who were killed) who today teaches at a Christian pre-school and has three children.

I'm a big fan of disaster movies. The more preposterous and over-the-top, the better! You know, "Airport"-style, or "The Towering Inferno". Of course, it's a lot less fun when it's a half movie/half documentary-drama about a tragedy that really occurred; - especially when made only two years after the incident and still fresh in the mind of everybody. "Flight 90" isn't the type of film you watch for entertainment, but to learn something more about what happened, or out of respect for the casualties and the families they left behind.

"Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac" is a retelling of the drama that occurred on 13th of January 1982, when - during terrible wintery weather conditions - a Boeing airliner crashed into an interstate bridge and sunk in the ice-cold Potomac River in Washington D. C. 74 of the 78 passengers and crewmembers lost their lives, and another 4 unsuspecting motorists on the interstate did as well. Since it's a serene production, and made for television, the film doesn't show much of the actual crash but focuses on character drawings (mostly of the few survivors) and the complicated rescue mission. It's a worthwhile film and it succeeds in passing the message that every victim of every incident has a name worth remembering and background story worth telling.

I was interested, since I was on that flight.

I didn't see ANY resemblance between me and the actor who portrayed me.

I was aware of the differences, in fact, between what was presented, and the actual events of the day.

What I learned = how my memory has observed actual experiences, how it has observed " distorted facts", what I learned from media, how pain medicine acts on a victim, how the media exploits victims, with little or no regard for their immediate needs, in the aftermath of a disaster, ... I had MULTIPLE reporters who lied to the hospital switchboard operator, claiming to be my Mother, in order to talk to me, how they crowded into my small hospital room in order to stick microphones in my face, as soon as I regained consciousness, how they published a picture claiming that a woman who was standing beside my bed was my wife (which she was not), ... I have learned to despise those low life animals!!!!

I don't think the movie caught any of those events.

So, to me, I thought the movie was exploitative, and don't recommend it to my friends. There is plenty of live video available. Also, I have been interviewed often, in that era, and say what I had to say, for anyone interested.

Joe Stiley (still kicking, at 83, living where it never freezes, in Southern Mexico).