Here in 2022, if that crash were to have occurred today, the first word to the WTOP newsroom or Traffic Center would certainly come from someone on that bridge, and most likely theyd be sending photos or video, Statter said. ''I was overwhelmed with the fact there was nothing you could do,'' he recalls. He said Tirado had worked as a cement mason in Washington the past two months but was in the process of moving to Tampa. Kelly Duncan Moore lived because she was obeying regulations. The two swam toward it, crawling over the two students with whom they had been chatting with seconds earlier. Silberglied had a 19th-century naturalist's ability to immerse himself in nature and see things that hadn't been described before and a 20th-century scientist's ability to use technology to unravel the rules of the natural world. Stiley, a pilot himself, said he realized that something was wrong as the plane headed down the runway. The pain of what happened hurts less and less, to be replaced by the realization of what will never be. The commotion churned up in his life by his few astounding seconds in the water is over. A visitation for Vanity will be held Sunday, April 17, 2022 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM at Hillsboro Memorial Funeral Home, 2323 West Brandon Blvd., Brandon . ''It happens all the time. For the five survivors of Air Florida's crash into the 14th Street bridge and plunge into the icy. I saw some of the best and worst of human people.. Stiley put his head between his knees in a safety position. He knew a boat couldn't navigate through the ice, and he wasn't sure a helicopter could make it through the storm. He realized he was alive as was his coworker, but his feet were trapped and he was still buckled in. Copyright 2022 by WTOP. She felt guilty that she didn't tell her colleague to sit where she was supposed to -- she might have saved her life. His rock music collection is now a time capsule of oldies. He is still with the Congressional Budget Office, printing and distributing documents. She lives in Florida in the town where her parents lived -- her father, who was her protector and spokesman, died in 1999. ''I go through phases where I wish I had my father to talk to,'' says Patrick Zondler, 40, a manager in a department store. Tirado's husband and child had died on impact. I got quite an education in the year or two thereafter of what it means to be a survivor of a situation like that, he said. She died at 48 of pancreatic cancer on April 21, 2002 -- just two and a half weeks after Bert Hamilton. She only kept a few things. When she put her baby in Harry Silberglied's arms, she remembers, ''He said: 'I haven't held a child in so many years. It was in the nation's capital. That's where she stores what's left of the life she didn't get to live. This spring, in a strange coincidence, two of the five survivors died of natural causes. Motorists stuck in traffic on the bridge and millions of others watching network newscasts looked on, horrified, as the few who survived the 737's initial plunge into the river struggled amid wreckage and ice for an agonizingly long half-hour. I knew we had nowhere near the right speed.. Kelly was pulled from the chilly waters of the river soon after the accident by a National Park Service helicopter. The pilots were found to have little experience flying in the snow and did not communicate properly when an error was noticed on one of their instruments. Olian couldn't quite reach the floundering survivors, but when Tirado fell limply from a U.S. Park Police helicopter lifeline and went underwater, Skutnik, of Lorton, swam to her rescue. Lenny Skutnik is physically little changed -- a few gray hairs and a few extra pounds -- from the 28-year-old in a blue short-sleeved shirt who made all the papers. She kept in touch with the Silberglieds -- she is listed in Mildred's phone book as ''Bob's friend'' -- and right after her first child was born (she eventually did have two), they visited. Sign up for service and obituary updates. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma), A member of the diving team, aiding in the salvage effort of an Air Florida jetliner which crashed in the Potomac River, takes a break during the salvage operations in Washington, Jan. 15, 1982. Stiley was hauled into an ambulance and went into shock. Hamilton gives inspirational speeches to service clubs and other organizations throughout the country based on his crash experience, emphasizing how a brush with death can force a person to reexamine priorities in life. 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events. At some point she told them how close she and Bob were; that she was supposed to have become their daughter-in-law. . He was the sixth person who survived the crash, a middle-aged man who, according to the United States Park Police helicopter rescuers, refused their lifeline, indicating that it should go to the others. Seventy-eight people, including four who were in their cars on the inbound . She smokes a cigarette and considers, then adds, ''I'll admit, she lost a pretty good son.''. She could never fill the hole left in her family by her brother's death. Priscilla Tirado, now 43, survived the crash, but lost her 2-month-old son and husband in the crash. Her faith has allowed her to let go of the guilt. Tirado declined to be interviewed for this article, but her father, Beirne Keefer, said she "still has problems" dealing with the crash. (AP Photo), A member of the search team carries a brief case through the snow from the Potomac River, the site of the Air Florida jetliner, in Washington, Jan. 15, 1982. Forty years later, one of the people involved in WTOPs coverage that day reflects on how the technology of news gathering has changed. "My next feeling was that I was just floating through white and I felt like I was dying and I just thought I'm not really ready to die," she told ABCNEWS back in 1982. There are scientific publications, including one that came out posthumously in 1988. When Robert was alive, she was consumed with the recurring thought that when her parents died he would be named their executor, even though she was the older sibling. People on the bank made a makeshift rope, using jumper cables and scarves, and threw it to Olian to tie around his waist. Yet "the sadness" occasionally wells up in him, and he breaks down in sobs, which he did twice during a recent interview. Felch took one of the ropes, while Stiley did a half hitch around his body with the other. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz), Members of the search team probe off a barge in the Potomac River in Washington, Jan. 15, 1982 seeking pieces of the Air Florida jetliner that crashed into the river two days ago. Here are some ways to offer your support to someone grieving. A few people who had been seated near the rear of the plane clung to debris, screaming for help. At that point Skutnik, looking abashed in the visitors' gallery, stands. It was renamed Ronald Reagan National Airport in 1998, many pilots have said it is a hassle to get in and out of. At 5:15 a.m. this Jan. 13, sheriff's deputies stopped Tirado's 1986 Corvette convertible after noticing her speeding and switching lanes, arrest affidavits state. She is married with three children. Bert Hamilton died of a heart attack and Patricia Felch, Stiley's former administrative assistant, died of pancreatic cancer, just 2 weeks after Hamilton's death. Sometimes I have my days. Joe Stiley told ABCNEWS in 1982, that the freezing water jarred him into consciousness. "You've got to go out and do it," he said. Benson Levinson's mother, Jean, never recovered. She met her future husband, John, a tennis pro, at a Miami church and is now raising three children. By 10 p.m., he'd never play football again. He was offered about $1,500 for the rights to his story for a cheesy television movie called ''Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac.'' Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here. The District of Columbia later renamed the 14th Street Bridge in his honor. The plane crashed last Wednesday on take-off from National Airport. ''It just really was like God reached out and grabbed onto me.'' Written across an envelope are the words ''Bob's Death Certificates.'' ''We think we control things we don't,'' she says. Another witness dove into the frigid water from the bank of the river but could not make it to the floating piece of the plane. "You could see out one side, but not really the other side," said Stiley, now 63. At one point, two ropes came down for Stiley and Felch. No trees for branches. (''It doesn't open anything,'' he says.) When I called back in, someone said Are you calling about the Metro crash? and I said, What Metro crash? He drowned before emergency responders could go back for him. In 20 years, she has said only a few sentences to the press about the accident. WTOP.com | Alexa | Google Home | WTOP App | 103.5 FM. ''A hero seems something to be bought and sold,'' he says, citing the marketing of police and fireman dolls since Sept. 11. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.kraeercoralsprings.com for the TIRADO family. But she wants to tell this one. 2023 SCI SHARED RESOURCES, LLC. Prepare a personalized obituary for someone you loved.. July 15, 2016 - She inherited too all her parents' papers and mementos -- boxes of stuff about Robert. Our hearts are with the Tirado family. In one instance, Statters line was disconnected, but his hosts in the hotel room allowed him to dial the newsroom again. His father, William Zondler, a communications executive, died at age 44 while traveling on business. (5 years old). They are all dumped in a large plastic bin she pulls from a storage room. A sixth person, possibly Atlanta bank examiner Arland Williams, also was seen in the water, but later disappeared from view. He and his wife have a 7-year-old daughter and a 4-year-old son. It filed for bankruptcy and grounded its fleet in July 1984. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest. Skutnik, a retired U.S. government employment, dove into the icy water, saving the life of Priscilla Tirado. The crash marked the beginning of the end for Air Florida as a carrier. She felt guilty about the middle-aged woman who just before takeoff asked worriedly if it was safe. CNN had just introduced what became a new phenomenon the 24-hour news channel. '', The other side is that the trauma to his neck and spine left him with bone spurs that caused chronic pain and forced him to give up an executive career of constant travel. "I just couldn't hold back anymore.". According to the affidavits, she said she had been drinking and smoking marijuana and crack, a potent form of cocaine. Stiley knew he had to help her. ''I deeply regret the lateness of my message of congratulations to you for the heroic part you played,'' the letter read. Hamilton, who started an Amway business four years ago, recalls the first jet he boarded after the accident. Her children remember her as a kind mother who encouraged them to pursue their goals. She felt guilty about the photograph that was published of her in her hospital room, surrounded by balloons and Champagne, looking as if she was celebrating when so many others had died. When the plane went down he was in the middle of a divorce, and he went back to his parents' home to recover. Let others know about your loved one's death. Memorial Park Funeral Homes & Cemeteries South - Flowery Branch | 4121 Falcon Pkwy | Flowery Branch, GA 30542 | Tel: 1-770-967-5555 | info@mempark.net Anthony Ivener, now a 37-year-old partner in an accounting firm, was 16 when his father, Arnold Ivener, 46, a civilian engineer with the Army Corps of Engineers, was killed. There was so much to feel guilty about. I talked my way into a fifth-floor hotel room, where people were watching the crash scene [out the window] and they let me use the telephone, said Statter. His cataloging skills are evident: each cassette, each song, labeled, numbered and timed, with a cross-reference in a loose-leaf notebook. Replied pilot Larry Wheaton: "I know it.". There were military men, college students, and families on board. As passengers screamed, the rear of the aircraft struck a guardrail and several cars on the bridge. Nevertheless, Hamilton said, "You can't let fear overtake you.". He went back to work after the crash; he felt he owed it to his dead colleagues. Staff researcher Bridget Roeber contributed to this report. After he lauded Skutnik, Reagan was informed of an almost-unknown hero, Roger Olian. Please accept Echovita's sincere condolences. There we were in the middle of nowhere in the middle of that icy area, Stiley recalled. She doesn't want her name used because she hasn't yet told her children that when she was a young woman, before she met their father, she was in love with another man. There is the yellowed article dated 1962 from a New York newspaper about the 15-year-old Flatbush boy who is ''much better at catching flies than fly balls.'' His passion since boyhood had been butterflies -- his Ph.D. thesis was on butterfly communication. The only major change at National since the accident is the construction of an overrun area at the north end of the main runway, which has been credited with saving lives in recent years. The flight recorders were reported to be in this section of aircraft but were not found after the removal from the water. Stiley suffered hypothermia, a broken arm, leg, a skull fracture, broken jaw and spinal injuries. "I remember thinking to myself at the time: I wonder what I'll be doing 10 years from now," she said. . After three years, that faded. Roger Olian, a sheet-metal foreman, was the first to jump into the water to try to reach survivors. Priscilla was a generous individual who loved her grandchildren and was passionate about puzzles. 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