The Last Man in the Water

“What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others remains and is immortal.”                                                      Albert Pine

January 13, 1982 – Washington D.C.: There are not many Americans who remember the name Arland Williams. Air Florida Flight 90 crewmember Kelly Duncan, and passengers Patricia Felch, Priscilla Tirado, Joseph Stiley and Bert Hamilton will never forget his name, nor the sacrifices he made for them.

Arland Dean Williams, Jr. was born in 1935, in Mattoon, Illinois. After graduating from high school in 1953, he attended The Citadel Military College in Charleston, South Carolina, one of the nation’s top military institutions. Following college graduation, Williams served two years in the military before starting a banking career, which led him to become a bank examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta.

On that Wednesday in mid-January 1982, Williams, a 47-year-old veteran bank examiner, was in Washington for the unpleasant task of closing a key Florida bank. The weather forecast that afternoon called for rain with temperatures in the low 30’s. However, a low-pressure system tracked further south than predicted causing the fifth worst snowstorm in the capital’s history.

With some flights already canceled, several of Williams’ colleagues opted to spend an additional night in town rather than risk flying. But anxious to get home to his wife and two children, after the meeting Williams headed to the airport.

Due to several weather delays and additional time to de-ice the plane, the flight departed at 3:59 EST, 1 hour and 45 minutes behind schedule. Flight 90 took off from Reagan Washington National Airport headed for Tampa in a blinding snowstorm with 79 passengers and crew on board.

Seconds after takeoff, and less than a mile from the runway, the 13-year-old Boeing 737 clipped six cars and a truck on the Interstate 395, 14^th Street Bridge. The crash killed four motorists on the bridge before the plane nose-dived into the frozen Potomac River.

The tail-section of the plane broke off on impact and resurfaced about 30 yards from the riverbank, with 6 passengers, including Arland Williams, miraculously clinging to the wreckage for survival and screaming for help. Motorists responded by trying to create make-shift lifelines from fan belts, battery jumper cables, jackets, shirts, and pants, but they were unsuccessful in reaching the survivors. Several bystanders attempted to swim to the wreckage, but heavy ice and shockingly cold 34-degree water made it impossible.

The six people hanging to the tail were encouraged not to give up by the gathering crowd on shore. Finally, as hope for a rescue faded, at 4:20 p.m., approximately 20 minutes after the crash, a U.S. Park Service police helicopter arrived on the scene.

Fighting blustering winds and poor visibility, the chopper lowered a lifeline and flotation ring, which Williams grabbed and handed to one of the injured women. After dragging her across the ice to the paramedics waiting on shore, the helicopter returned for another passenger. Again, Williams reached for the ring and passed it to a second female passenger.

The process of Williams passing the lifeline to the other passengers would repeat itself five times. When the helicopter returned for Williams, he was gone. He had slipped beneath the frigid waters and drowned.

Arland Williams’ selflessness received national attention, due to his heroics and because of his anonymity. It took several weeks before the unknown hero was officially identified. Williams’ heroics symbolized the goodness and courage in each of us. His actions not only provided a lifeline to five total strangers, but they inspired millions of people who would learn of Williams’ story in the news.

While presenting the Coast Guard Gold Life Saving medal to Williams’ wife and two children a few months later, President Ronald Reagan said, “Arland Williams’ final actions are difficult to comprehend. It is hard to find words to describe his selfless actions in the icy waters of the Potomac River on that late Wednesday afternoon two miles from the White House. Undoubtedly, Arland Williams was desperate to live just like the others. What is the difference between a hero and a coward? They are both afraid of dying. The difference is in the choices they make.”

The nation’s capital has many monuments to heroes: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King Jr, to name a few. On March 13, 1985, three years after Arland Williams made the ultimate sacrifice for his fellow passengers, the 14^th Street Bridge was renamed the Arland D. Williams, Jr. Memorial Bridge, a Washington D.C. monument to a little-known hero.