Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac (Movie review)
F/O Pettit and Capt. Wheaton (Bruce Wright and James Whitmore Jr.)
Air Florida flight 90 crashed on the 14th Street Bridge near Washington National Airport on January 13, 1982. Here is a movie depicting this terrible plane crash, as part of my series of reviews on movies based on true air disasters. This is Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac, also known as Florida Flight 90 or simply Flight No. 90.
Plot summary
In the beginning of the movie, we see the usual routine for some of the passengers of Palm 90 (the callsign of Air Florida flight 90). We see Priscilla Tirado (Dinah Manoff) with her husband Jose (Richard Beauchamp) and her baby in the cold weather of Washington, D.C. suburbs, leaving for a new life under the sunny palm trees of Tampa. We see the businessmen going on their respective business trips, kissing their families goodbye. Patricia “Nikki” Felch (Jeanetta Arnette) and Joe Stiley (Stephen Macht), two business associates, see their plans changing. Because of bad weather in Alabama, they now head for Tampa first.
Meanwhile, N62AF, a Boeing 737-222 operated by Air Florida, is preparing for a scheduled Miami-Washington 11 o’clock service. The crew of 5 is already on board. Donna Adams (Kate Vernon) is the Senior Flight Attendant, assisted by Marilyn Nichols (Jamie Rose), who just found out she is pregnant and seems to be a good friend of Donna. We also see Kelly Duncan (Kathleen Wilhoite), possibly the most “junior” of the flight attendants. In the cockpit, Captain Larry Wheaton (James Whitmore Jr.) and First Officer Roger Pettit (Bruce Wright) already set the throttles on maximum thrust and take off from sunny Miami in less than 30 seconds. It’s 11 AM.
F/As Marilyn Nichols and Donna Adams (Jamie Rose and Kate Vernon)
A few hours later, N62AF is already approaching Washington National Airport. The descent is a little shaky and the flight attendants are the first to notice it, as the B737 makes a very bumpy touchdown at National Airport. It’s about 1:30PM. The weather at Washington is at its worst. Marilyn and Donna are worried about their departure, as Donna says that while they’re in, “The question is… Will we be able to get out?”. Almost all the passengers are already at the departure lounge of Palm 90. The flight is scheduled to depart at 2:15PM.
It’s 2 PM. The passengers start boarding (at last) the B737. A passenger complains about bad weather: “A window seat! I finally got me a window seat, a window you can’t see though!”. The snow storm is at its worst. The ground employees are de-icing the wings of the B737. The Captain got just informed the airport might close for an hour to remove snow from the runway, so he orders the crew to stop de-icing. At about 3PM, the airport is reopens and de-icing resumes. At 3:10PM, de-icing is over.
Palm 90 pushes from the gate at 3:23PM and is sixteenth in priority for take-off, right behind a New York Air DC-9. Joe Stiley asks Flight Attendant Marilyn Nichols why the pilots aren’t outside checking for ice build-up on the wings and engines. Marilyn replies that “the anti-ice system should take care of that. I’m sure the captain has taken the necessary precautions.”… Surprisingly, the Captain, during the engine checklist prior to departure replies to “Anti-Ice Engine?”, “OFF”… The first of the many mistakes that lead to the crash…
At 3:59PM, 50 minutes after de-icing, Palm 90 is cleared to take-off from runway 36. The take-off from 36 is on a course straight for the White House, so a left turn over the Potomac River is required immediately after liftoff. The last transmission from National Tower to Palm 90 is: “No delay on departure if you will. Traffic’s two and a half [miles] out for the runway”. Take-off thrust is applied. Or so the crew thinks…
Joe Stiley (Richard Macht) notices something's wrong
The probes in the engines are covered with ice and snow and indicate wrong read-outs. When the thrust levers are not at full throttle, the EPR read-out already indicates full power (when in fact is less power than required for take-off). 10 seconds. Barely any thrust. 20 seconds, nothing either. The plane is still rolling. The passengers are the first to notice that the take-off is particularly lengthy… First Officer Pettit, looking at the two EPR gauges of the engines, asks the Captain if everything is fine. He is annoyed and responds that the readins are accurate, but Pettit is not sure.
The passengers notice no lift-up after 30 seconds. After quick dialog between a First Officer worried about the conditions of the plane and a Captain with an attack of get-there-itis, Palm 90 finally gets to V1 and rotates after 45 seconds. Passengers and flight attendants let out a sigh of relief as the B737 lifts off.
But their happy faces change when First Officer Pettit notices a stickshake. All the cabin suddenly shakes. The overhead compartments open by themselves. The passengers’ carry-ons are scattered on the floor. The seatbacks are vibrating hard. The telephone handset in the galley falls. Some passengers and Flight Attendant Kelly Duncan, scared to death about their lives, put their heads on their knees, assuming the emergency landing position. The CVR transcript shows a surprising ending for this ill-fated dialog on the Boeing 737. “Larry, we’re going down!!!” “I know it.”
Palm 90 crashes on the southern span of the 14th Street Bridge, then known as the Rochambeau Bridge. It hits three cars (killing four people on the ground) and suddenly plunges and disappears into the icy waters. The rest of the movie deals with the rescue efforts of the U.S. Police Park and a brave citizen, Lenny Skutnik, who went into the icy water to save one survivor from drowning. Only 4 passengers and one crew member survived the accident. The sequences are very realistic and even show some actual footage from that day.
F/A Marilyn Nichols (Jamie Rose)
6 people on Palm 90 made it through the crash, but 5 survived. One passenger, identified as Arland Williams, was passed the cord to climb into the helicopter, but he passed it each time to other survivors. When there was no one left but him and it was his turn, he was gone. In memory of his heroic act which unfortunately cost his life, the Rochambeau Bridge is now known as the Arland D. Williams Jr. Memorial Bridge.
The five survivors are finally Priscilla Tirado, travelling with her husband and baby who perished in the crash, Joe Stiley, businessman with his secretary Patricia Felch, Burt Hamilton, businessman travelling alone, and Kelly Duncan, flight attendant.
Appreciation
The overall movie is simply excellent. The acting is very good. The movie is thrilling ’till the end. The producers made an almost perfect job on re-creating the event. Too bad the lack of special effects at the time made a scene of the B737 hitting the bridge impossible. It’s the only flaw I see right now.
I give this movie 9.5 out of 10.
This is definitely one of the best in its category. Although not much crash but mostly humanitarian help, the movie made a near perfect reenactment of the event.
Things to notice
Here are the goofs and trivia about Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac.
Priscilla and Jose Tirado (Dinah Manoff and Richard Beauchamp)
- Some shots of the parked Boeing 737 at Miami show it is bearing the registration code N81AF (when the real code was N62AF).
- Shortly before Joe Stiley asks Flight Attendant Marilyn Nichols about the anti-ice system (see right), a man wearing a navy vest is sitting in the right side aisle seat, behind Joe. On the next shot, the man is already standing and stowing his coat in the overhead compartment.
- For dramatic purposes, the fatal take-off scene lasts much longer than real-time.
- In the movie (maybe in real life), only the passengers who assumed the bracing position prior to the crash survived, except for Priscilla Tirado.
The aircraft
Palm 90 is a Boeing 737-222 operated by Air Florida. Its registration code was N62AF and was operating a DCA-TPA-FLL route (Washington National – Tampa – Fort Lauderdale).
Movie links
- IMDb – Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac
Cast, plot summary, quotes from the world’s largest movie database. - Wikipedia – Air Florida flight 90
Very detailed recount of what happened on January 13, 1982. - Roads to the future
Further detail on what is simply known by motorists as “the 14th Street Bridge”, including a map of the probable flight track of Flight 90.
Specifications
U.S.A. 1984, Produced by Finnegan Pinchuk. Directed by Robert Michael Lewis. Starring Jeanetta Arnette, Barry Corbin, Stephen Macht, Richard Masur, Donnelly Rhodes, Jamie Rose. Rated PG. Also known as Flight 90, la catastrophe du Potomac (French), Katastrophe auf dem Potomac – Absturz in die eisigen Fluten (German).
