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 then the next instant I'm somewhere else. A rescue helicopter is in the air within minutes. 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 PTOAC. [Music] [Applause] [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 in of snow. [Music] 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 2-hour hold while ground crews struggled to clear the only acceptable instrument runway. Some airlines cancelled flights. Others continued to board passengers so they would be ready for takeoff when the runway was [Music] cleared. Air Florida went ahead and began boarding passengers on Flight 90 to Tampa. They started with those seated at the back of the plane. Joe Styly, an executive at GTE, was also a licensed pilot. He was more than a little concerned about the weather, but he and his co-orker Nikki Felch took their seats in row 18. Alice Darden was looking forward to a relaxing vacation in sunny Florida. Arland Williams, a bank examiner, was on his way home from a business trip. Bird Hamilton, who had a fear of flying, 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 fiveperson crew. None of the passengers expressed concern at that point about the weather. People were concerned about delays as far as their schedules went, but at that point I didn't hear anyone that was frightened or anything. Just before 300 p.m., National Airport was reopened. The tower radioed the captain and said he was in 11th place for takeoff. All I want. Regulations required that planes that had been sitting out in the storm and collecting snow receive extra deicing, a pressurized mixture of hot water and antifreeze. Back off instruments. While they sat on the tarmac, the pilot and first officer made a final check of the aircraft systems. Uh, pedo heat, anti ice off. The pilot, who previously had some unsatisfactory grades on proficiency checks, failed to activate the engine deicers. Morning, panel. This oversight meant that slush and frozen debris would remain in the engines, hampering a probe, vital to monitoring engine power. All right, ready to 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 plane. When uh 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 and 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, the plane started to shake. 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 seat belt. Um, thinking I don't, you know, everything's okay. You know, I I really didn't know what was happening. The captain advanced the throttle, but the plane wasn't responding normally. I don't think that's right. Because the pilot forgot to activate the internal engine deicers, a probe had frozen. Maybe it is. 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. 500 ft. The frozen aircraft could not achieve altitude. Larry, we're going down. Look out. National Airport is very close to the heart of Washington DC and the 14th Street Bridge is one of the busiest thoroughares. [Music] But because of the snowstorm this day, government offices and schools had closed early, so traffic on the bridge was extra heavy. Lenny Scutnik was trying to get home from his job at the Congressional Budget Office. Traffic was not moving. Um it was um just crawling, going very slow. Administrative assistant Janette Bigalow was nervous. It was her first time driving in a snowstorm. The weather was getting worse and worse. The snow was coming down down. It got real bad. I remember praying and telling God to take me home. Sheet metal mechanic Roger Oolon 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 happened. Everybody bend over. Bend over. Get down. Get down. Put your head down. [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 water of the Battoic [Music] River. Helpless air traffic controllers watched Flight 90 disappear off the radar screen. United States Park Police was speaking. 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 priority. Medic Ron Gayy took the call. Eagle's Nest says, "I think we're looking for," he says, "I know we're looking for a 737." And I almost dropped the phone. I said, "Oh, you're you got to be kidding me." Pilot Don Usher and medic Gene Worer wasted no time. There was a lot of urgency getting that aircraft launched and over there, especially given the conditions. The ice on the PTOAC was very thick and it was shore to shore and we knew that there was no way a boat was going to get in there and get any survivors. [Music] Commuter Lenny Scutnik 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 guard rail. Soon as we got within view of the the river, we could see what was going on. It's obvious that some type of aircraft had crashed. There's a debris and broken ice. It was a mess. The plane had carried 26,000 lb of jet A fuel which emptied into the river, but there was no evidence of fire. Incredibly, there appeared to be survivors in the [Music] water. Passengers Alice Darden, Bird Hamilton, Nikki Felch, and Joe Styly 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 uh just bobbed to the surface of the water. My initial reaction was that I was just going to 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 going to let go of it. By that time, I was really scared. Then they saw Arland Williams alive, but tangled in cables from the aircraft, which trapped him in his seat. I was uh 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 going to watch us die. Roger Olen had reached the 14th Street Bridge moments after the crash. I stopped and got 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. Hold on. 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 100 yards from the shore. And there'd be no way to 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 Olen's waist. He had volunteered to brave the icy waters. I knew the water would be cold. I 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. Hang on. He's coming. But unfortunately, the minute you left the shore, the water was very deep. So there was no walking. The only thing I was focused on was getting out to the plane. I mean, focused to the point where I realized that my hands were so cold I couldn't feel them 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. At about that point, this rope thing that I had tied on to 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 Park Police helicopter to arrive at the bridge. When pilot Don Usher and medic Gene Worer had left their hanger, visibility was so bad that Usher had to use the tops of street lights 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 obvious. 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 on to it. Only Usher and Windsor had a full view of the disaster [Music] below. No one knew how many people were injured or dead on the bridge. nor if the six people visible in the 34° water were the only survivors of Flight 90. We're dying. Shortly after takeoff from Washington DC's National Airport, Air Florida's 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 Ptoac 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 uh 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 riverbank. 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. Chris has to move back now, too. Everybody on. The roof of Janette Bigalow's car was ripped off. Can you hear me? You okay? Hang on. I'll be right there. [Music] Miraculously, she was alive. After that, I don't remember remember too much after that. Um, next thing I remember I woke up, I was in the hospital. The impact of the plane had torn away a 41 ft section of the bridg's sidewall barrier and railing. Bigalow knew she was fortunate. I believe there is a God in heaven because if you would see how my car was, it was really messed up pretty bad. Everything was crushed. Beside the seat I was sitting in down below in the river, the situation was becoming even more critical. The survivors had been in the 34° 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 u about God at all. Roger Oolen, who had been driving home from work when the crash occurred, continued to risk his life in the freezing water. [Music] [Applause] Tied to a makeshift lifeline, he struggled to make his way to the survivors. I could hear them, but I couldn't see them very well. I was completely exhausted and completely frozen. I guess it entered my mind that if I keep going, I'm not going to 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 10 ft. At about that point, maybe I was 5 ft or so away from the plane, I heard a helicopter coming. Park Police helicopter pilot Don Usher and medic Gene Windsor quickly realized they were the only hope for the survivors of Flight 90. We had the f 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 out in the in the ice by himself and we went right to that individual cuz 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 badly I couldn't control it. Once Don Usher and Gene Windsor saw that Oolon was safe, they focused their attention on getting the survivors out. Jean'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 them inside, so we had to get them from where they were to the shore. 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, damage 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 and threw his arms around the skid. 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 and threw in the loop into it and lifted him out of the river. All right, you got him. Bring him over now. As they approached 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 rotor's going to cut you in two. And it was it was right about midsection on those people standing up there. And he had to keep them back. And it took a heck of a long time to get this gentleman out of the rope 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] [Applause] 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 [Music] under. An airplane crash in the nation's capital. Air Florida's Flight 90 had gone down moments after takeoff. The wreckage was now floating in the Ptoac River along with five remaining survivors. Commuter Lenny Scutnik was on the 14th Street Bridge. He felt compelled to help. We've all watched things on the news of other people doing heroic things, firemen running into burning buildings, and it makes us question ourselves. Do we could would we ever in a situation like that be able to to do anything? Let's go. Medic Gene 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 Arlon 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 just looked dazed and were moving very slowly, just holding on to the wreckage and keeping afloat. The helicopter crew tried to rescue Arlland Williams. Next, this man looked the worst of all the people that were in the water. Had a horrendous blood 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 uh it just carried me out and at no time did I feel, oh, I'm going to fall off. I don't think I can hold on. I just felt that I was being lifted out. All right, put it down. 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 um changes that, you know, there's no way to explain, you know, how appreciative you are. Two survivors from Flight 90 were now on shore, but pilot Don Usher was afraid that their rescue was taking too long. It was very frustrating hovering over the shore while they had to get them back out of those ropes. Back up. The folks on the shore, they're doing everything as fast as they could possibly do under the circumstances. And but it just to us it seemed like it was taking forever. My ring. Stay there. I'll show you mine. Rescue personnel on the ground threw 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 wreckage tried to get him to take the rope and he just passed it off. Nikki Felch took the tow rope. Her boss, Joe Styley, 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] [Music] We couldn't lift them out into the air because none of them were secured in a way that they could that they were going to be safe or they were just going to fall off if we tried to lift them up. So, as we began, there was no way to get them across but to drag them across. Halfway 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] Nikki Felch was now stranded in the middle of the river. The lifesaving vest barely managed to hold her above the water. Joe Styly fought to hold on to Alice Dart. The collision with the ice chunks actually broke Styly's ribs. The stress finally was too much. Darden could not hold on to him and he lost his grip as [Music] well. The helicopter crew continued to drag Sty to shore, knowing the two women desperately needed help. [Music] Usher 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, uh, all of those things were kind of really affecting her ability, her perception about where she was and what she was doing. The 26,000 lb of jet fuel that had 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 I dropped the throwing ring on the end of the rope and hit her with it a couple times and she finally 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 shore again, I had to lift up to get the rotor system clear of the people that were on the riverbank. And that pulled the grass and she it just kind of slid out of her hands. [Music] Alice Darden could no longer help with her own rescue and she was losing the strength needed to stay afloat. [Music] The sole 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° water for nearly 30 minutes. And no one could predict how much longer they could survive. Arlland Williams, who was trapped in the wreckage, had refused the rescue helicopter's lifeline twice, putting the other passengers before himself. Nikki Felch was kept afloat by a life vest and had drifted to the middle of the river. Paramedic Gene Windsor was trying to get Alice Darden to grab onto a life-saving ring, but she was blighted by jet fuel. Time was running against us, hypothermia. uh had no idea what kind of injuries they had, but they had to be pretty substantial. She finally grabbed a hold of the ring buoy. So, Jean said, "Go." However, bystander Lenny Scutnik, who had not given up his vigil, watching and wondering if he had the right stuff, could see that she was in trouble. I knew she was going to let go and that that was it. That she needed help. It was just too much to take. Within seconds, Darden lost her grip on the ring. When 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 are we going to How are we going to do this one? I never really stopped to think about uh whether I was going to go in um or not. It was more of a a human instinct type thing. Um, I just did it. As I got to her, it was eerie. It was like you seeing a horror movie that somebody's been drowned in a bathtub where their face is just under the the water. She She was going under. When I grabbed her, I just started pushing and stroking, pushing and stroking, you know, nothing real fancy, just trying to get her to to the [Music] bank. And a fireman had had a rope tied around him, grabbed her, and then I swam off to the side and made my way up the embankment. I was in a situation where I I I did something and I feel good about that that I had it into in me to help another human being. 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 she had fallen off the rope earlier on that try to get them all in at once. So, we went for her. Paramedic Gene Worer could see that Nikki Felch was exhausted. Tried a couple of times with her to get her to take a hold of the rope and she was just looked so stunned at that point. Told Don I said, "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 about this far from her head with the skid of the aircraft and I watched until there 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 Jean and then he grabbed her. He pulled her up onto his boot and he was holding on to the back of her clothing and said go. We just lifted 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 had never done anything like that with that helicopter. Five survivors were now on shore. The helicopter crew turned around and went for Arland Williams. Now, we've got one more rescue to do, and that is to go back out to the fuselage and get that sixth person. The aircraft had shifted. It had sank a little bit. It had turned and we couldn't find him. So, we went all the way around the aircraft, hovered around looking specifically to try and see if we could see him even at the water surface or just below the water surface and couldn't see him. All we could see was just the mangled the fuselage and everything laying there. The metal, he was gone. He was nowhere to be seen. I felt like the Dickens right then. It's just like uh human nature that people want to get out of that situation and him passing it off makes you wonder. Arlland Williams had made the ultimate sacrifice to help his fellow survivors. Windsor and Usher had done all that they could. The total time from our arrival on scene until the last victim was put on shore was 10 minutes. To us in the aircraft, it seemed like 3 hours. We got back to the hanger. I called my wife at home. Then I started telling her about the six man that we could not rescue and I I just busted out crying right at that point because unable to affect his rescue and I still get choked up about it really. While the survivors were out of the icy water, they still weren't out of danger. No, we are full. We have to find some place up. I'm maxed out. I'm going to need some more help back in here. They were suffering from multiple injuries and severe exposure. Bringing someone back from a hypothermic state has risks of its own. The horrendous crash of Air Florida's Flight 90 into Washington DC's 14th Street Bridge on a snowy January day had put the staff at National Orthopedic Hospital into disaster mode. Guys, I need to make sure they're down here. 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. Gerard Ing, an orthopedic surgeon, was on call. [Music] 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 Schwarz was chief of medicine and the medical disaster coordinator. 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 uh or how many had been rescued. In addition to the five plane crash survivors, Lenny Scutnik and Roger Oolon, the two civilian rescuers who had plunged into the water to help save them were also brought in. Your left hand back. My immediate reaction was, "Oh my lord, if you know they're bringing seven at a time, we were going to be overwhelmed very early because it was a small hospital, 125 beds." Um the sad part about it was that that was the first and last ambulance that we saw with [Music] patients. severe hypothermia. Extremely hypothermic. I don't have vital signs on anybody. 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 the pain of hypothermia. Flight attendant Kelly Duncan was the only crew member 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°. 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 standill. Bear with me here, honey. Okay, honey. I'm going to put a tube down your throat. I need you to help me here. So, we ended up warming the patients by running warm salt water through their stomachs to warm their core temperature. [Music] In addition to hypothermia, most of the survivors had sustained multiple fractures. Can I get somebody call X-ray? We need some sat neck and back films down here. Spine films. I need a nurse out here. 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 in fairly quick period of time. Alice Darden and Nikki Fel stabilized overnight and eventually made full recoveries. But Joe Styley and Bert 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 Oolen and Lenny Scutnik were treated for hypothermia and released that evening. After 5 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 down my face and just filling up my ears because I I think that was just the first time that it really uh registered what exactly had happened, the magnitude of it. Four commuters died from the crash into the bridge. Janette Bigalow was a lucky survivor. in the car. Can you hear me? Are you okay? I had like six or seven stitches in my head. The doctor told my mother if it would have been 2 in deep, I would have died cuz whatever hit my head, it would have hit my skull and it would have killed me. Miraculous. Her condition was absolutely miraculous. She had some glass uh injuries to her scalp and a cut on her ear, but was otherwise doing quite well. Out of 79 passengers and crew on board Air Florida Flight 90, only six survived the crash. [Music] Through the extraordinary efforts of medic Gene Windsor and pilot Don Usher, 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 hanger and 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're 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 PTOAC, we saw again the spirit of American heroism at its finest, Lenny Scutnik. I was invited to attend the President Reagan's first State of the Union address. Just put me in shock. I I was just uh dumbruck. 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. President Reagan also thanked Roger Oolan, the first bystander to jump into the freezing PTOAC after the plane crash. Like the other heroes that day, Oolon 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. [Music] Air Florida passenger Arlland 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 [Music] honor. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]