I had in mind to post an end-of-January piece focused on a fun photo of me. With this week’s horrific air collision in Washington, DC I won’t write so lightheartedly. News of the deadly crash hit hard when I heard it late Wednesday night, not just because I don’t like flying but because it reminded me of a previous Potomac River air disaster.
Until my husband and I relocated to North Carolina four years ago, I had lived in the DC metro area my entire life, except for college. Over those decades, I recall several airplane tragedies. During my high school years, a passenger jet crashed into a small mountain in bad weather on approach to Dulles Airport. All 92 occupants died in the accident. Most recently, prior to this week, all are very familiar with American Airlines Flight 77, originating from Dulles Airport, which terrorist hijackers slammed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The crash killed the 64 people on board and another 125 people in the Pentagon. It was an intense experience being in the Washington area during that time. My husband had occasional work meetings in the Pentagon, but he was not there that day; we knew folks who were. The next day schools were closed, and I remember driving to a meeting with my kids, seeing black smoke still spiraling from the crash site.
The more vivid memory I have, however, was the passenger airliner that crashed shortly after takeoff into the frozen Potomac River during a snowstorm on January 13, 1982. I was a young teacher living in the Maryland suburbs then. A family hired me to take care of their kids and home while they took a short winter getaway to Florida. There was news of a plane crash, so we turned on the TV. Live coverage showed a partially submerged airplane and heroic rescue attempts in blizzard conditions. In the end, five passengers survived but there were 74 fatalities, including four motorists who were killed on a bridge as the plane stalled out of the sky due to a deicing failure. Watching that disaster unfold in an area I was so familiar with left an indelible impression.
National Airport, as it was called then, was not far from the Arlington VA home where I grew up. My Dad’s journalist career required travel not infrequently. Usually, we dropped Dad off or picked him up from the airport as it was so close. A scenic parkway parallels the Potomac River and goes directly to the airport. Across the river is the iconic Washington DC skyline including the Washington Monument and the US Capitol. At the end of the airport runway is a riverfront park where folks gather to watch planes takeoff and land right overhead! I went many times as a child, and we took our own kids there too.
But this week that beautiful spot became the site of a tragedy again. We hear the stories of those on board who were lost, and it is heartbreaking. We lost three active-duty military too. As in all such tragedies, there is the ‘why’question, even why did God let this happen? I have no easy answer. Where I must rest when the incomprehensible happens is in the sovereignty of God. In His providence, God provides goodness and blessing that are above expectation, but in God’s sovereignty there comes that which is tragic and unfair. I do not think we will understand all that God allows this side of eternity, but I try to view it as Job did, “Shall we indeed accept [only] good from God and not [also] accept adversity and disaster?” (Job 2 v 10, Amplified Bible). Jesus left us with this promise, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16 v 33
