The deadly crash in the Potomac after an American Eagle jet collided with a military helicopter has stirred memories of a long-ago tragedy in Washington, D.C. An Air Florida flight taking off en route to Fort Lauderdale crashed into a bridge and tumbled into the icy Potomac in January 1982.

On Jan. 13, 1982, snow was falling across the D.C region, and the increasingly hazardous travel conditions prompted the federal government to release workers early that afternoon.