{"id":316,"date":"2025-01-30T09:11:24","date_gmt":"2025-01-30T09:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/remembering-lenny-skutnick\/"},"modified":"2025-01-30T09:11:24","modified_gmt":"2025-01-30T09:11:24","slug":"remembering-lenny-skutnick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/01\/30\/remembering-lenny-skutnick\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Lenny Skutnick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night's  mid-air collision over the Potomac reminded me of January 1982 and the heroism<\/a> of Lenny Skutnick:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

On a bitterly cold and snowy day in January 1982, Air Florida flight 90 took off from Washington D.C. heading to Tampa, Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n

Immediately after takeoff the plane began experiencing problems from the ice that had formed on its wings. It plummeted, skipping off Washington\u2019s 14th Street bridge and crashing<\/a> into the icy waters of the Potomac River.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ensuing rescue effort was broadcast on local television. Frigid temperatures and bad weather hampered the first responders. With time running out to save the crash victims, a bystander named Lenny Skutnik suddenly jumped in and saved<\/a> flight attendant Priscilla Trijado, who had twice fallen back into the water after slipping away from rescue lines.<\/span><\/p>\n

A speechwriter for Ronald Reagan named Aram Bakshian was watching the coverage. He immediately thought<\/a> Skutnik\u2019s story would resonate with the American people and decided to include it in his draft of Reagan\u2019s upcoming State of the Union address.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Here<\/span><\/a> is Reagan's SOTU tribute to Skutnick.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The low level of humanity tempts some of us to misanthropy. But there is no denying that heroes walk among us. Daniel Penny<\/a> is another. And there is no denying that the White House from time to time is graced with a truly worthy occupant. Reagan, and now Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night's  mid-air collision over the Potomac reminded me of January 1982 and the heroism of Lenny Skutnick: On a bitterly cold and snowy day in January 1982, Air Florida flight 90 took off from Washington D.C. heading to Tampa, Florida. Immediately after takeoff the plane began experiencing problems from the ice that had formed … Continue reading “Remembering Lenny Skutnick”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,198],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-misanthropy","category-tributes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}