Originally Posted By: Dagny
This conjured memories for me of the January 1982 Air Florida crash into the Potomac (after it crashed into the 14th Street Bridge (I-395). The crash happened amidst a major snowstorm. The bridge was jammed with traffic (people died in cars, too). The river was covered in ice, the water was just one degree above freezing. A few people survived the crash only to live the horror of freezing and drowning. A Park Police helicopter came to the rescue in a blinding snowstorm and a civilian named Lenny Skutnik who dove in to save a woman on the verge of drowning -- she'd been in that freezing water for 30 minutes. "It feels like knives in you to be that cold...."


Thanks for sharing that link....what an awful tragedy and gripping testimony of survival and heroism.

Watching that, I found myself wondering if the onlookers were close enough to throw a line if they had something inflatable nearby to help? I really have no idea, but on first glance it appears to me that if you had something like the Aerovest on hand it might have been possible to inflate it, attach some paracord and throw it out there to see if you could pull a person or two to shore. I know that one woman was too injured to hang on and would have died were it not for the man who swam in to help her, but the others seemed somewhat able to hang on, and I'm just thinking that with enough paracord and something that floats--maybe even a bunch of empty plastic water bottles--there might have been a safe way for onlookers to help, or at least attempt it.

I realize the Aerovest is not a flotation device, but I'm curious as to its capacity to be used for an impromptu throw ring in an emergency situation. I have no firsthand experience with it (and no affiliation, BTW) so I'm just thinking out loud here.

Perhaps it would not need to be something that helps them float, just something that floats enough so they can grab a hold of the attached line and be pulled in?

I really don't know, just thinking.