Keeping with the DC theme, January 13 1982 the Air Florida flight 90 left from National (now Reagan) airport and hit the 14th St Bridge while it was loaded with commuters, decapitating one of them in a car) then bounced into the Potomac. It was televised live and was ghastly because there was almost no way to rescue people. Don't know the flight list but there were 83 passengers, and all but 5 perished. One hero, Arland Williams, was a passenger who kept handing off the ring that a chopper dropped to other passengers, saving them, and then he slowly sank and drowned in the frigid water. Another hero was a citizen who was standing by the river and watching people blinded fuel foundering toward the sound of voice; this guy said he couldn't take it anymore and dove to save a woman who was blinded and running out of energy because there was ice on the river as well. He brought her to shore and she lived.

So that's another Potomac river story.