In February 1982, transcripts of the “black box” cockpit tapes from the Air Florida plane that crashed into the 14th Street Bridge and fell into the icy Potomac, killing 74 passengers and four motorists one month earlier, are released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The “black box” tapes reveal that Air Florida Pilot Larry Wheaton, despite the heavy snow that caused chaos throughout the Washington Metropolitan area that day, declined to return to the terminal for de-icing after waiting 45 minutes for takeoff clearance and did not turn on the plane’s own de-icing system. The rationale: the plane was already behind schedule for its return flight to Ft. Lauderdale and, according to the co-pilot, de-icing, “just gives a false sense of security.”

Six passengers escaped the plane into the Potomac as a Coast Guard helicopter hovered overhead, lowering a lifeline to those in the river. Passenger Arland Williams repeatedly let other passengers take the line before he did. Williams drowned. Congressional Budget Office employee Lenny Skutnik dove in the water from the bank of the river and aided in the rescue operation. He survived to receive the Coast Guard’s Gold Lifesaving medal.

That afternoon, local schools and Federal employees were sent home early, as the ferocity and timing of the storm was not predicted in local weather forecasts. This created chaos and gridlock on the transportation infrastructure. I waited more than two hours for a Metrobus on Rockville Pike that day only to find no room for additional passengers on board. This was not a deterrent.

That same day, January 13, 1982, marked the first fatality in the Metrorail system, when four passengers died on an Orange Line train that derailed between the Federal Triangle and Smithsonian stations. Survivors, including 25 injured passengers, waited for hours aboard the crippled train for rescue.

The release of the cockpit tapes from the Air Florida flight brought some sense of closure to one of the worst days in local history, rivaling the British burning the Treasury Building and looting the White House in 1814 and the events of September 11, 2001. Just as the “black box” tapes revealed that human error precipitated the plane crash, human error was also deemed the cause of the Metrorail disaster.

The National Library of Medicine moves from the Army Medical Museum and Library Building at 7th and Independence Streets, SW, to its home on the NIH campus in Bethesda.

The Library started as a small collection of medical books at the office of the US Army Surgeon General; over the years the collection grew into a world-renowned repository of research resources relating to medical science. Prior to its permanent move to Bethesda, the collection had moved to the Riggs Bank Building, 15th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, from 1862-1866 (‘it’s right on the money’), to Ford’s Theatre on 10th Street, NW, from 1866-1887,  and  to the Army Medical Museum and Library Building at 7th and Independence Streets, SW.

The National Library of Medicine is currently the largest biomedical library in the world, boasting more than 17 million items in 150 languages. 

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