For the first time since the plane crash over the Potomac River that claimed 67 lives, two D.C. firefighters who were among the first to arrive on the scene shared their stories.
A DC Fire and EMS fire boat captain and a dive team member who helped recover victims told NBC Washington what they saw that night and how they’re coping with trauma.
Steve Hater, with the dive team, and CJ Isbell, a marine pilot, both have spent years with the department. What they saw after a passenger plane and an Army helicopter crashed on Jan. 29 was like nothing they had ever seen, though.
“Having some years of experience and seeing a lot of things, that night – it’s some of the worst things imaginable,” Isbell said. “It was one of those situations where it just didn’t seem to stop. Just because of the sheer volume, the number of people, the area, the debris field.”
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He called the scene a “nightmare.”
“It’s something you expect to see in movies, not real-life in D.C.,” Isbell said.
“I don’t think anything, regardless of time on job and what you’ve see in your careers, ever prepares you for the magnitude of what we saw that night,” Hater said.
‘Crash, crash, crash’
Isbell recalled the moment he learned of the catastrophe from air traffic control.
“The phone rang and they immediately said, ‘Crash, crash, crash.’ So we immediately grabbed our gear and ran down to the boats,” he said.
“As we came around Hains Point, it was a typical night. It was cold, windy, dark and quiet. So, we had really no indication of where the aircraft was. We headed south, and that's when we started to smell the jet fuel. We're outfitted with night vision and thermal imaging equipment. So, from the time of impact to the time of us arriving at the fuselage and starting to locate victims was less than 10 minutes,” he said.
“We saw part of the fuselage sticking out of the water, large debris field, lots of jet fuel. We went immediately to the fuselage, and for us, we started to recover some victims that were right at the fuselage. But seeing some habitable space potential for survivors in the fuselage, we came up and started to search inside the fuselage, for the hope that there may be a space for a survivor,” Isbell continued.
Hater was one of the first divers to plunge into the river that night.
“We've prided ourselves on training for worst-case scenarios. We just didn't expect this was the worst-case scenario,” he said. “Obviously, it was cold, dark, you know. The smell of jet fuel was everywhere. The amount of lights from first responders on shore and on the river and searchlights and the helicopters overhead was borderline pushing sensory overload, trying to make sense of everything.”
“That night was an anomaly compared to typical underwater conditions around here. The visibility was actually really clear, partially due to cold water, cold weather, cold temps, the ice that we had in the days and weeks prior,” Hater continued. “We probably had 6 feet or so of visibility, which is usually unheard of. As far as what you saw underneath there, it was a mangled mess that you were trying to make sense of. Like, what am I, you know, what am I looking at here?”
Coping with trauma
Both men talked about the trauma they and others who helped in the recovery process are dealing with.
“I've talked to some people, and my wife and the family support. Talking to the brothers, talking to the ones that were there. You know, being able to openly talk is probably, I'd say, one of the bigger helps for me,” Hater said.
Isbell also pointed to the help of fellow first responders.
“It still seems surreal. But being around our fellow peers who were there to be able to discuss … because the average public can't quite understand exactly all of what you've seen and done. So, being able to communicate that – and then the mental health professionals giving you the tools to help work through some of those things,” he said.
Hater and Isbell are just two of the hundreds of first responders from multiple agencies from D.C., Maryland and Virginia who took part in the recovery mission.
