January 13 - Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac

This disaster movie’s entire run time happens today – January 13. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.   

FLIGHT 90: DISASTER ON THE POTOMAC       

On January 13, 1982 we are introduced the people whose lives will intersect on Air Florida Flight 90 from Washington, D.C. to Tampa. Marilyn Nichols, a stewardess has just learned she is pregnant. Priscilla Tirado and her husband Jose are flying to take up a new job. Nikki Felch is going to a trip with her boss, Joe Stiley to Alabama, but her boyfriend David Frank wants to get married. Bert Hamilton is going on a business trip to Florida, but would rather stay with his wife and son. Roger Olian is a maintenance man at a mental hospital, married to Ginger, who works in  the Naval Recruitment Office. Arland Williams is flying to Florida to close a bank for the Federal Reserve. Marilyn, Flight attendant Kelly Duncan and the plane leave Florida and fly to Washington. They land in Washington in a blinding snowstorm. After the passengers boarded the plane they had to sit for 50 minutes. This caused ice to accumulate on the plane. Most passengers ignore the stewardesses safety talk. The de-icing that was done was done improperly.  The pilots seemed unconcerned about ice on the wings. When the plane tries to take off, ice on the sensors causes the pilots to have a false idea of their speed. The plane only gets to 352 feet altitude before it stalls. The plane hits the 14^th Street Bridge and crashes into the Potomac River.  Bert Hamilton, Joe Stiley, Nikki Felch, Priscilla Tirado, Kelly Duncan and Arland Williams make it out of the plane and cling to a piece of wreckage in the freezing river. Roger Olain, who was on the bridge plunges into the river to try to help. Meanwhile, friends and relatives learn about the crash. Donald Usher and Melvin Windsor take off in their helicopter. Olain gets close enough to shout encouragement to the survivors. The helicopter rescues Bert Hamilton. When it returns Arland Williams passes the rescue line to Kelly Duncan. They pull Olain out of the river. Each time when offered the rope, Williams passed it on to Joe, Nikki and Priscilla. Joe is pulled to shore, but a stranger, Lenny Skutnik has to jump in and pull Priscilla to shore. By the time Nikki is rescued, Arland has slipped beneath the water.  The survivors start to come to terms with what happened. [the entire film]

A pretty good docudrama. The film shows what caused the disaster and how the rescue happened. Gives credit to the self-sacrifice of Arland Williams.

 Air and Space Disasters of the World by Xavier Waterkeyn (New Holland Publishers, London, 2007) at page 127 and the movie at 00:20 give the date of the crash.

Producers – Bill Finnegan and Patricia Finnegan

Director – Robert Michael Lewis

Screenplay – John McGreevey

Runtime – 1 hour 30 minutes

Released – April 1, 1984

Starring -

Jeanetta Arnette as Nikki Felch

Barry Corbin as Bert Hamilton

Stephen Macht as Joe Stiley

Richard Masur as Roger Olian

Donnelly Rhodes as Arland Williams

Jamie Rose as Marilyn Nichols

Chad Lowe as Al Hamilton

Dinah Manoff as Priscilla Tirado

Ken Olin as David Frank

Kathleen Wilhoite as Kelly Duncan

Robert Factor as Lenny Skutnik