By Peter Duijnmayer – http://www.airliners.net/photo/Air-Florida/Boeing-737-222/1051429/L/, GFDL 1.2, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16961664

On a cold snowy and icy January day in 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 was scheduled to fly from Washington’s National Airport to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International with a stop at Tampa International Airport. The plane’s crew had arrived at Washington-National (which our readers know is actually in Arlington, Virginia) from Miami earlier in the day but the flight was delayed by almost two hours as the airport closed due to the snowy conditions.

The airplane flying the sector was a 737-200, the oldest model of the 737 still flying. The aircraft which is now the most popular and venerable in aviation history was considered too small for a lot of domestic segments in the 1970’s as the 727-200 and DC-9 were at the time used more. However, in time this aircraft and its later models would kill off both the 727 and DC-9/MD-80-90.

We’ll let the Washington Post tell the rest of the story.