There are significant differences between tonight’s crash of American Airlines Flight 5342 into Washington D.C.’s Potomac River and the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 on an equally cold winter’s night in January of 1982. But as in the crash 43 years ago, the outcome appears grim.

In video captured by a camera at the nearby Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one can see the Bombardier regional jet on approach to Reagan National Airport from Wichita, Kansas, impacting with another aircraft. Both break apart, initiating a fireball and plunging from the sky.

As of this writing, no information is available on whether or how many people were saved. Forget the temperature of the Potomac, said to be slightly above freezing, or how long someone could survive in such frigid water. The damage while still in the air makes the survival of the occupants of either aircraft an unlikely outcome.

All flights were suspended at Reagan Airport while emergency workers raced to the river searching the frigid waters for signs of survivors. It is a poignant scene evocative of the Air  Florida crash of 1982.

In that disaster on January 13, the pilots, inexperienced with flying in wintry conditions, and the airport ground crew’s improper de-icing of the Air Florida 737, were two of many factors that led to the airplane failing to gain altitude on departure. Headed for Ft. Lauderdale, the plane carried 79 people. It was taking off during a brief break in an otherwise snowy day with a temperature well below freezing. The plane hit the 14th Street bridge, spanning the river and plowing through 7 cars before plunging into the water.

As was seen again tonight, a massive rescue effort was launched. Visibility was not good, snow was falling but still, it was daylight. Even so, only five of those on the airplane could be saved. In addition to the 74 killed on the flight, four people on the bridge when the plane hit, were also killed. Because the airliner, a Boeing 737 had broken into several pieces on impact, the National Transportation Safety Board determined the accident was not survivable.

We hear about accidents, read about them, or in my case, write about them, but a 15-second video makes it pretty clear what is survivable and what is not. What remains is to find out why an airliner just moments from landing safely and presumably exactly where it should have been, was blasted out of the air and into the river.

See the statement from American Airlines CEO Robert Isom, here.