On January 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737-222, crashed in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 78 people. The crash took place only two miles from the White House.
The Air Florida flight took off from Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, with 74 passengers and 5 crew members on board.
The plane had flown into Washington from Florida in the early afternoon and was supposed to return to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, after a short stop.
With that background, let's look at the accident chain of Air Florida Flight 90 from that cold, snowy January day in 1982, which started before the aircraft left the gate.
