American Airlines Plane Crash Follows Strikingly Similar Tragedy on Potomac 43 Years Ago. Only 5 Survived the 1982 Disaster

On the night of Wednesday, Jan. 29, an American Airlines regional passenger aircraft collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk Helicopter over the Potomac River, the same site of another tragic plane crash almost exactly 43 years ago.

On Jan. 13, 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 catastrophically scraped a bridge while departing what's now the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (formerly Washington National Airport), the same destination Wednesday's American Airlines Flight 5342 was approaching before the mid-air collision.

As of a press conference held on Thursday, authorities currently suspect none of the 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the flight, nor the three soldiers aboard the helicopter, survived the accident. Washington, D.C. Fire and EMS Chief John A. Donnelly announced that they were switching from a “search and rescue operation” for the passengers on both flights to a “recovery” operation.

Over four decades ago, 78 passengers, crew members and motorists impacted on the 14th Street Bridge were killed by the Boeing 737-222 that crashed into the Potomac. Only five people — four passengers and one flight attendant — survived the tragic incident.

Related: American Airlines Plane Crashes into Potomac River After Black Hawk Helicopter Collision: Live Updates

A report by the National Transportation Safety Board determined several probable causes for the crash. It pointed to the crew's failure to "use engine anti-ice during ground operation and takeoff" and "decision to take off with snow/ice on the airfoil surfaces of the aircraft." The NTSB also cited the flight captain's "failure to reject the takeoff during the early stage when his attention was called to anomalous engine instrument readings."

The report outlined contributing factors such as the prolonged delay between de-icing the plane and its takeoff and the crew's limited experience operating in winter conditions.

The crash has been depicted in various forms of media over the years, both in documentary format and as dramatized events. In 1984, NBC aired the made-for-TV film Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac, and the tragedy inspired author Warren Adler to write his novel Random Hearts.

Off screens and pages, the story has also lived on through the few survivors — even fewer of whom, however, are still alive and willing to speak about what happened. On the 30th anniversary, flight attendant Kelly Duncan and passenger Joseph Stiley spoke to the Seattle Times about how they escaped the chilling Potomac waters and recovered from their severe injuries.

Duncan was 22 at the time of the crash, and she reportedly spent the weekend prior with friends in the Florida Keys. During the 20 minutes she spent in the river after the flight went down, Duncan recalled having a spiritual awakening. In 2012, she told the Washington newspaper that she "felt Gold's presence" for the first time while fighting for her life.

Related: Figure-Skating Sisters Everly and Alydia Livingston, Ages 14 and 11, Among the Victims of American Airlines Plane Crash

Religion carried her through her return to aviation five months later. "I don’t know how people could go through something like this without faith," she told the outlet.

She eventually left Air Florida to study early childhood education, and as of the 2012 interview, she worked at Christ Fellowship in Miami.

Per the Seattle Times, passenger Joseph Stiley — now 86 and living in Puerto Escondido, Mexico — was working as a vice president at General Telephone & Electronics when he was involved in the crash. He had extensive experience flying planes professionally. Just days after the incident, he told The New York Times that he knew the flight "was not going to make it" before it took off.

Both he and his assistant, Patricia Felch, were traveling on the ill-fated flight. The 2012 article claims that Stiley was the most severely injured of the survivors with more than 60 broken bones.

Related: American Airlines CEO Says 'We Don't Know Why' Black Hawk Helicopter 'Came into the Path' of Plane

“I remember coming out of the airplane. I remember the (rescue) helicopter…. I remember the ambulance. I remember seeing the lights in the hospital," he told the Seattle publication over a decade ago. "I remember a lot of other things related to the Air Florida crash, but I don’t know how much of that was because of the coverage.”

The article also noted that survivor Priscilla Tirado moved to Florida and has not spoken much of the disaster. The other two survivors died in the years after the crash.

Read the original article on People