on the afternoon of january 13, 1982, after some very cold weather and a morning of blizzard conditions, air florida flight 90 crashed on take-off. it had been waiting forty-nine minutes on a taxiway and took off with ice and snow on the wings. the boeing 737 aircraft could not gain altitude. less than from the end of the runway, the airplane hit the 14th street bridge. it cut off the tops off vehicles and fell through the ice covering the potomac river. the weather and traffic caused problems with helping the people on the plane. with the help of people in the cars, a united states park service police helicopter crew, and one of the plane's passengers who later died, five people on the plane were saved. the other 74 people on the plane died. four people in the vehicles on the bridge also died.