The Worst Day: A Plane Crash, A Train Wreck, and Remarkable Acts of Heroism in Washington, DC

by Bruce Goldfarb

A REAL-LIFE DISASTER A minute-by-minute account of 2 simultaneous catastrophes during a 1982 blizzard—and the extraordinary courage of civilians and first responders

For fans of Deep Survival and Adam Higginbotham’s Midnight in Chernobyl and A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space

More than 40 years before a Black Hawk helicopter collided mid-air with American Airlines Flight 5342 over the Potomac River, a desperate race against time took place nearby in overwhelming conditions.

Washington, DC, was in the grips of a historic snowstorm on January 13, 1982 that gridlocked the city when Air Florida 90 crashed into a bridge jammed with traffic and plunged into the iced-over Potomac River.

6 people survived the crash, clinging to wreckage in the icy river as a Park Police helicopter risked a daring rescue flight in nearly whiteout conditions. As the rescue is taking place, DC’s Metro system suffered its first fatal derailment nearby, with dozens injured.

In this page-turning drama, journalist and former firefighter/EMT Bruce Goldfarb recreates the harrowing struggles for survival and acts of incredible courage. Told through the eyes of survivors, firefighters, police, and bystanders, many of whom have never before shared their stories, Goldfarb explores the impact the day had on these participants as well as on the resulting aviation and transit safety measures that have protected us over the decades.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, American History, Audiobook, Aviation

240 pages, Paperback

Published December 9, 2025

About the author

Bruce Goldfarb has contributed to Baltimore magazine, Maryland magazine, Washington Post, USA Today, American Health, American Archaeology, and many other publications. He has written or edited seven medical reference book and textbooks, and publishes welcometobaltimorehon.com. Goldfarb's first work of popular nonfiction, 18 TINY DEATHS; THE UNTOLD STORY OF FRANCES GLESSNER LEE AND THE INVENTION OF MODERN FORENSICS will be published by Sourcebooks in February, 2020.

Reviews

[Darya Silman]

Publication date: December 2, 2025

I usually give 5 stars to exceptional books: a thorough historical research that took years to complete, a book that left me speechless with its emotional impact, or a classical work I want to return to again and again. THE WORST DAY: A PLANE CRASH, A TRAIN WRECK, AND REMARKABLE ACTS OF HEROISM IN WASHINGTON, DC by Bruce Goldfarb isn’t exceptional. But... but I wanted to be captivated, entertained, and feel a chill run down my spine. I didn’t wait for something breath-takingly literary. Additionally, I watched all episodes of ‘Seconds Before Disaster’ multiple times. The book met my expectations, and that is why it received my five stars.

THE WORST DAY reads as a long newspaper article, with the author’s intent to enthral by the scope of the events. A plane crash that resulted in the deaths of both the plane’s passengers and people on the ground is a tragedy in itself; a derailment of a metro train illuminates the fragility of your lives. As always, the question of fate starts to haunt the survivors: why me? in what way was I special? The book also emphasizes weak places in the safety net. We assume the first responders have an answer to every challenge, yet there are loopholes, multiplied by the human factor, in inter-departmental and inter-state cooperation. Many of them were addressed after that tragic day in January 1982; others still remain unresolved.

The author clearly knows his craft. With a wave of a magic wand, aka by his words, the wizard makes readers jump on the edge of their seats or deeply sympathize with the heroes. The story of Priscilla Tirado left me wet-eyed. She has never recovered from the loss of her husband and a nine-week-old son. Though she physically survived, she lost her soul in the plane crash, and there has been nothing magical in her life afterwards.

I wished there would be more of the train disaster, so that it didn’t look like a filler.



I received an advanced review copy through Netgalley, and I’m leaving my review voluntarily.

[Scott]

"[Arlington County Emergency Communications Center] tech Richard Singer dialed the direct line to Washington National Airport's air traffic control tower. 'Do you have any aircraft missing? We had a report of a plane hitting the 14th Street Bridge.'

'Send everything you have,' an air traffic control supervisor said.

'A plane is missing?' Singer asked.

'Just send everybody!' he was told." -- on page 76

Briskly recounting one of the earliest memories I have of a national news story during my childhood - which also include the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979 and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse in 1980 - author Goldfarb's The Worst Day mainly focuses on the catastrophic Air Florida flight 90 crash in Washington D.C. on 13 January 1982. A Boeing 737 attempted an early afternoon departure during a snowstorm but quickly crashed onto a bridge during afternoon rush hour and then landed / broke apart into the ice-covered Potomac River. Likely owing to his background as a first responder - the author was formerly a firefighter/EMT - Goldfarb matter-of-factly sets the scene and then relates the experiences of many of those involved - the survivors of the crash, the emergency response personnel, and the bystanders / Good Samaritans. (Some indelible moments - captured by a news crew - were passerby everyman Lenny Skutnik leaping into the frigid water to assist the gravely injured and hypothermic Priscilla Tirado to the shore, as well as a police helicopter - which was not equipped for rescue operations - hovering dangerously close to the river's surface to retrieve two other airliner passengers in an improvised manner.) It was a day of great tragedy - there were 79 fatalities at the scene - but yet also one of admirable courage, boldness, and gutsy determination. Remarkably, Goldfarb tells this story in a succinct 200 pages, as well as then briefly detailing necessary changes enacted by airlines and emergency service agencies in the aftermath.

[Doug Phillips]

The Worst Day by Bruce Goldfarb reads like a real-life disaster movie brought to the page. In fact, Goldfarb openly notes that the events could easily serve as the backbone for a fictional blockbuster, and it’s hard to disagree once you’re into the story. The tension is constant, the stakes are high, and the human element never gets lost amid the chaos.

In one sentence, the book recounts how a chain of unfolding emergencies converged into a single, overwhelming day of crisis that tested first responders, systems, and leadership to their limits. That clear focus keeps the narrative grounded even as the scope grows larger and more intense.

Goldfarb’s greatest strength is how smoothly he moves the reader from one major event to the next. Each section builds naturally on what came before, creating momentum without feeling rushed or confusing. You always know where you are in the timeline and why the next development matters.

The book is relatively brief, but it tells exactly as much of the story as needed. There’s no sense of padding or unnecessary detours. The author keeps the narrative tight, letting the facts, decisions, and consequences speak for themselves. It makes the book easy to read in long sittings while still feeling substantial.

What also works well is the balance between technical detail and human experience. You get enough operational insight to understand how things unfolded, but the story never becomes dry or overly procedural. The people involved, their reactions, and the pressure they faced stay front and center.

Overall, The Worst Day is a gripping piece of narrative nonfiction that delivers suspense, clarity, and strong storytelling in a compact package. It’s informative without being heavy, dramatic without being exaggerated, and engaging from start to finish. If you enjoy real-world stories that unfold with the pace and tension of a thriller, this one is well worth your time.

[Michael]

The Worst Day by Bruce Goldfarb is a fast-paced look at the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 in Washington DC in January 1982, along with a Metrorail derailment on the same day in DC that was long overshadowed by the Air Florida crash. Most will not remember the Metrorail incident and Goldfarb brings it to light in this short but informative read. The writing is crisp. The author does a good job recounting the lessons learned from both incidents. A solid read. Thank you to #netgalley and #steerforth for the opportunity to preview this book.

[MKF]

This book is supposed to be about a plane crash and a train wreck but that wreck isn't important. The train wreck sections are awkward and they don't feel like they belong in this book. You're reading pages after pages about an airplane crash then there's a few paragraphs about a train wreck then back to the plane. The information about the train wreck feel unfinished, rushed, and many times vague. I don't even remember the author telling you exactly how many people died on the train. The author doesn't even tell you what happened to the few train passengers he mentions by name. It's not just the train either since the people on the bridge get the same treatment. Only a few people who died on the bridge get mentioned though no number is actually given. There's no stories of people on the bridge who were injured and survived and the majority of the people on that bridge are nameless. Including all this information would make this book longer but at least it would be the complete story.
If I was the author I would have divided the book into three sections for the plane, train, and bridge. If the author had done that then he could have provided more information and details for each. I would have loved this book so much more if I knew the whole story not just bits and pieces.

[Robbie Newell]

Interesting read.

Full revierw at http://robbiesramblings.com/reviews/a...

[Ashley]

I was familiar with the story of Air Florida Flight 90, so when I saw this book on the shelf at the library, I had to get it! What I had not known, however, was that there was also a fatal Metro derailment AND two giant fires in the city on the same day. Not to mention the blizzard and resulting traffic. It truly was a terrible day to be in DC.

This is a very straightforward, factual account of what happened that day, which is great. Goldfarb’s writing is clear and concise. All in all, it definitely felt a bit more like a research paper than a book. In some ways that is good - I’m not left questioning the writer’s intent, nor the events of the day. It was also so fast paced that I could scarcely put it down.

On the other hand, the more technical, straightforward writing style left something to be desired. This is such a wild and emotional story, but pretty much none of that emotion was conveyed in the text. I had previously listened to a podcast episode about the plane crash, and I was in tears. I didn’t have an experience close to that this time, so I felt like something was missing.

All in all, this was an informative and exciting book to read, but it just didn’t go quite as far as I wanted. 3.5/5 rounded down

[Melanie]

I discovered this book at DC's Politics & Prose bookstore on my birthday, and I'm so glad I did. It's fairly new and published by a small press, so it probably doesn't get much attention beyond a little in DC. But it's well worth the read for anyone who likes nonfiction disaster/survival stories and anyone in DC who remembers this 1982 plane crash. I don't remember the event itself since I was a child still living in Indiana, but I remember the 1984 made-for-TV movie, which was terrifying and electrifying at the same time (the things '80s parents allowed us to watch!). And after I moved to DC in 2000, I would periodically hear about the crash — plus anyone in DC knows the risks of flying in/out of National Airport (as seen in the 2025 mid-air plane/helicopter collision) and can also picture all of the roads, bridges and locations described in this book.

Journalist Bruce Goldfarb chronicles the minute-by-minute 1982 Air Florida disaster, which took off and almost immediately crashed from DC's National Airport during a January blizzard. The plane hit a bridge in the nearby Potomac River, smashing and sheering off car roofs (and killing people on the bridge) before plunging into the icy waters. As traffic on the bridge and George Washington Parkway that parallels the river was at a standstill, numerous people saw, or heard, the crash and tried to help. But there was a lot of helplessness because the river was iced over and a few survivors were now in the water trying to hang on to ice chunks as they began to suffer from hypothermia and were too far for civilian rescuers on the river bank to rescue them. But they tried ... I'll let you read the heavily detailed and thoroughly researched account to find out what happened.

The book is not the type of narrative nonfiction you might be expecting. It's more "tell, not show," a nearly minute-by-minute account of certain rescuers, survivors and victims' days. You can feel the the impending doom and wonder who will survive. And because the disaster and attempted rescue itself is so compelling and nerve-wracking, you can't help but be sucked in, willing the rescuers to get there in time, willing the survivors to hang on for just a few more minutes. What I didn't know — because it was overshadowed by the plane crash — was that the DC's newish subway system, the Metro, also had a fatal crash that day when a train derailed not long after the plane crash.

So many things went wrong that day — including numerous mistakes made by people, including the pilots. You'll be mesmerized and horrified by the 1982 lack of communications, but also just the lack of coordination, procedures and communication in general. A lot of people were heroes that day, but also, a lot of travel rules and emergency response practices changed that day, making all of us safer. It's fascinating to read how things were done then nd how things are done now because of these 1982 crashes — probably the worst accident day in DC history until 9/11.

Again, if you like disaster/survival stories — or if you have any connection to DC — I highly recommend this book. It's straightforward, but thoroughly researched and written.

[Sandy Reilly]

Author Bruce Goldfarb provides an incredibly in-depth view of the tragic Air Florida 90 plane crash in 1982, with perspectives of not only survivors but also the heroic individuals who literally flew into the face of danger for the sake of helping strangers. I do wish Goldfarb had included more information about the train wreck -- his coverage is less than a third of the book and we don't hear much about the people involved -- but I did appreciate how much detail Goldfarb includes to help readers understand the issues of miscommunication and unpreparedness that contributed to both awful tragedies. It still blows my mind that, with all of the emergency response teams and law enforcement in the D.C. area, not one practiced for a cold/snow weather catastrophe before January 1982.

Goldfarb also doesn't shy away from the horrific details, dousing readers into the freezing cold water the survivors faced and bringing the tension of the daring rescue from two superhuman-like helicopter pilots who managed to beat the odds stacked against them and bring five people home to their families. I couldn't help but stare at the pictures and cry along with the loss of innocent lives. There were some larger tangents about safety protocols and communication programs that could've been edited to be shorter, and again, I felt the train wreck didn't get the same attention the plane crash did in Goldfarb's writing, but as a whole this was a captivating read examining how difficult it can be to coordinate rescue efforts while also restoring the faith in humanity through the stories of the brave few who helped rescue those in need.

**Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

[Stefanie Robinson]

This book tells about the events of January 1982 when an extreme weather event dumped ice and snow over Washington, D.C. Air Florida Flight 90 was a passenger flight that was flying from Washington, D.C to Florida. There were 74 passengers and 5 crew members on board. Runway conditions were icy, inactivation of anti-ice systems from the flight crew, and improper deicing of the aircraft was found to be the cause of this accident. There were other issues as well, such as the pilot choosing not to have more deicing agents applied, following too closely to another aircraft which increased ice and snow on the wings, dismissal of crew concerns by the pilot, The aircraft was only in the air for thirty seconds before crashing into the 14th Street Bridge, falling into the freezing river. I fear that my ghostly spirit would be in a fist fight with that pilot's ghostly spirit for all eternity.

Thirty minutes after the Flight 90 crash, an Orange Line Metro train derailed after hitting a concrete barrier. This was due to a misalignment of the barrier/track and control center error. Three people were killed and several more injured. Response was delayed due to the Flight 90 response. The train had no marked emergency door releases, and passengers struggled to evacuate.

The fact that both of these events happened on the same day in the same city is wild, but both could have been prevented. At least people tried to learn from the accidents and come up with better procedures. This book is currently available on Audible Plus if you are interested.

[Gayle (OutsmartYourShelf)]

On 13th Jan 1982 Washington, DC, was already in the midst of a snowstorm that was gridlocking the city when two devastating accidents occur. First, flight Air Florida 90 hits a road bridge jammed with traffic before crashing into the iced-over Potomac River. The few survivors are at high risk in the freezing waters as first responders, including a Park Police helicopter, try to rescue them in the worsening weather conditions. Then a packed DC Metro car derails & the injured are left in darkness with no idea what has happened.

I can't believe that I have never heard of these incidents before. Whilst reading I had to keep reminding myself that this was real life & not a film as events read like they could have been scripted - not one but two major accidents in the same city on the same day. It also brings home just how inadequate & uncoordinated rescue plans were back then, & I was glad to see the book also covered the subsequent updating of disaster procedures & the changes to safety protocols which are in use today.

It was well-researched & written in a factual style whilst showing sensitivity to those involved. If I have a criticism, it's that the Metro crash wasn't covered in as much detail as the plane crash, & so it felt a bit uneven in that respect. All in all though it was an informative read & I've added more of the author's books to my TBR list.

My thanks to NetGalley & publishers, Steerforth & Pushkin, for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Gail]

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for an ARC of The Worst Day.

I don’t very often read non fiction, but this appealed to me as I do enjoy stories of real life disasters and the investigations that follow. The first few pages setting the scene were essential to later on in the story, and needed to be paid attention to, as there is some explanations of the different organisations who would later be involved in the rescue and recovery.

The main focus is definitely on the plane crash, with the train derailment referred to less. The pace of the writing is fast and I felt myself being carried along and wanting to know what happens, as I didn’t remember all the details from the programme I watched on the plane crash.

Overall, a good quick read with solid research and tied up well with details of the survivors and also the investigation outcomes.

[Irene]

This book was riveting. I couldn't put it down. Bruce Goldfarb drew upon so many sources to tell this story of an awful, tragic day in Washington, DC's transportation systems. There were so many characters - heroes, victims, decision-makers - that sometimes it was hard to keep track of them, but the book really brought me as a reader into the tension of the day. The heroism, the good decision-making, the bad decision-making are all there for us to see. There are some stark and heart-wrenching moment. We're so used to having the world at our fingertips with our cellphones nowadays. This book reminds us that this wasn't the case 44 years. There were indeed numerous communications gaps / issues on this "worst day".

[AttackGirl]

why the train wreck information if you go into the details of the pilots why not the train conductor? If you want to show negligence not he pilots why not the whole of the FFA? If you want to discuss the dead baby so tiny why not all the bodies. Why the woman wanting attention on the bridge... Perhaps to used to writing magazine articles. Ugh. I almost thought the book was misprinted when they started discussing the metro train.

[Edie]

I remember this day well & the author does a fine hour-by-hour account of what did seem like “The Worst Day”.

I think my biggest takeaway was what these disasters taught us. Numerous significant aeronautical improvements came because of the tremendous loss of lives & severe injuries. These lessons came with too many Families making the ultimate sacrifice so this book is also a memorial.

I thank NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for a fair & honest review.

[Joshua]

Very straightforward recounting of the plane crash/metro crash that occurred on the same day in 1982. Recounts events leading up to and during the two disasters, focusing on each individual’s story. Could get a little tedious going minute by minute, story by story, but still a good way to learn about what went wrong on this day.

[Bruce Cline]

Interesting and engaging stories of survival in two separate incidents and, more importantly, the inadequacy of emergency response (despite some remarkable exceptions) that amounted to institutional clusterf*cks). So much of what happened was preventable, and the good news is that systems were later out into place to avoid or at least deal with future disasters.

[Karen]

It is crazy that in all the times I have heard of the Potomac plane crash, I never knew about the train derailment.

[Dana]

Super dry retelling of the January 1982 airline crash and train derailment in D.C.

[Jessica Lerbs]

Very interesting, a quick read with lots of personal details to make it not just about the events.

[Rsjones200]

Well told and researched story. Shows that most people are caring and good.

[Amanda]

This plane crash is one of the first major news stories I remember. While the book won't win any awards for its prose, I'm glad to have a better understanding of what happened.