The morning of January 13, 1982, I woke up, looked at the calendar, and realized that it was finally the day for to me to go to Florida! I was so excited, well; I was excited…until I looked outside my window. coulddn’t see anything but a sheet of white! I immediately ran downstairs to the kitchen to find the rest of my family ready for our vacation. I guess they weren’t worried about the weather like I was. I quickly ate some breakfast and grabbed my bags and we were off! Finally! I had been looking forward to this vacation since school started.

The roads to the airport were terrible. I really had no idea why the airport was even open today. The snow just kept falling and the flakes were getting bigger. After what should have been a 20 minute drive, we arrived at the airport an hour later. “Good thing our flight had been delayed,” my father said. It was true, our flight, Air Florida Flight-90, had been delayed. We waited around for about a half an hour more before they began to let us board the plane.

The plane was so warm compared to the freezing conditions outside. I had to sit next to my little brother. We were about the fifteenth row back. I got to sit next to the window seat, but first had to fight him for it. My mom and dad were sitting in the row in front of us (that way they could easily turn around and yell at us for misbehaving).

We were stuck on the plane for what felt like days before it even began moving. I have been flying before so when it finally began moving couldd sense that the ride felt incredibly weird. We weren’t going fast enough, and it was just way too bumpy. The flight attendants told us that it was just because of the weather. Finally, we left the ground.

We had only been airborne for what felt like 30 seconds when I knew that it wasn’t just the weather that was causing the plane to act weird…it was something else. The flight attendants’ faces were frozen in this look of pure terror. All of sudden we hit the ground. No, not the ground, a bridge, and then a river. The water was so cold. couldd hear people crying…screaming…calling out names. I was freezing and that’s the moment I realized…I was never going to make it to Florida…