| January 13, 1982 Washington D.C. Air Florida, Flight 90 Boeing B-737-222 N62AF The aircraft crashed into the 14th St. bridge and the Potomac River and sank shortly after taking off from Washington National Airport. The aircraft reached a peak altitude of 300 ft. The flight crew's failure to use the engine anti-icing system during takeoff. Failure to de-ice the plane a second time before takeoff and taking off with snow/ice on the airfoil surfaces of the aircraft. Ice which accumulated on the engine pressure probes resulted in erroneously high Engine Pressure Ratio (EPR) readings. When the throttles were set to takeoff EPR, the engines were actually developing significantly less than takeoff thrust. Seventy-four out of 79 aboard killed. |