FBI and Alexandria Police told Dean Naujoks, Potomac Riverkeeper, he could go out on the river if he stayed away from the crash site. He headed down river toward Alexandria, finding debris fields and parts of the plane in an area most boats don't go or know how to access on the Maryland side. Everything reeked of jet fuel, he said.
On Jan. 29 around 9 p.m., Potomac Riverkeeper Dean Naujoks was relaxing at home watching a movie on Netflix when Betsy Nicholas, his organization’s vice president called and said, “Turn on the news.” The news kept him up all night.
American Airlines flight 5342 from Wichita, Kansas, preparing to land at Reagan National Airport, collided with a southbound Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River near the airport in 35-degree weather. Both plummeted into the icy waters. Around 11:30 p.m., Naujoks heard that no one had survived. That night, he debated with himself about what he could and should do.
In a Feb. 19 online talk, Naujoks told participants that the next morning at sunrise he decided to try to help. He went to the Daingerfield Island Marina, where his boat is kept, within sight of the airport, and met Alexandria police officers. “It was eerily calm, a quiet, gray, cold day,” he recalled. A man who docked his pontoon boat there had found some airplane debris on the river so the police called the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to retrieve it.
“I was there to help and provide assistance,” Naujoks stressed. He got permission from the FBI to go out on the river, as long as he stayed away from the crash site. Having intimate knowledge of the river, Naujoks surmised that based on the outgoing tide and wind direction, debris would likely collect in Oxon Cove and Smoot’s Cove two miles down river near the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, places where most boaters rarely go.
Navigating in these coves is “tricky,” he said. An inexperienced boater could run aground easily in Oxon Cove and a rock jetty in Smoot’s Cove “can rip your prop off.”
What Did He Find?
There was debris “all over the place,” he said. “It was eerie.” He collected items like yellow foam from the airplane, a metal handle that probably came from an emergency exit and a sweater. The largest pieces he snagged were a seat and a window. He found packets of sugar and a shredded landing gear manual. Bags of chips “perfectly intact” were floating in the water. Everything was coated in jet fuel.
Once back at the marina, he put it all in a cart and contacted the Alexandria Police Department who turned it over to the FBI. Later, others also spotted debris near Maryland’s National Harbor.
On his experience, he said that “driving the boat, retrieving wreckage and dodging ice floes, it was a hectic day on the river. It was very intense and I was terrified I’d come across something I did not want to see.”
On the Sunday after the Wednesday crash, FBI officials called Naujoks because of his knowledge of the river. They wanted to go into Oxon and Smoot’s Coves so he guided them there by phone using visual landmarks.
Jet Fuel Everywhere
Everything was covered with jet fuel, Naujoks told listeners. WTOP radio reported that many of the 300 first responders were covered with jet fuel and some developed rashes and lost their sense of taste and smell temporarily from the exposure.
Two days after the crash, people observed a fuel sheen and fish kills near Alexandria’s waterfront, Naujoks said. He contacted several academic experts to learn about the fuel’s chemical components and the risks of exposure to the fuel. He believes that much of the jet fuel volatilized into the air and some came down on Alexandria rooftops as atmospheric deposition.
He is hoping that a state agency or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will take some water samples, testing that he described as very expensive. And while his network has a water testing program, they do not have the resources to do this kind of testing.
“No one knows how far south the jet fuel went,” he said. To be safe, PRKN cancelled their annual “polar bear plunge” at National Harbor the weekend after the crash.
Asked if it is safe to eat fish caught in the Potomac, he recommended following the states’ fish advisories. He does not know the true impact of the fuel on fish. Long-term exposures to pollutants are typically more dangerous than pollution from a one-time event, he maintained.
“I would never tell anyone to stay away from this amazing river,” he said, and summarized, “I was grateful for the opportunity to help and to experience what was happening in the river. You serve as a witness to what’s happening to the river, the good, bad and ugly. We are the watchdog and defender.”
The Collision
The collision was the deadliest airplane crash in the country since 2001, many media outlets reported, when a jet slammed into a New York City neighborhood after takeoff, killing all 260 people on board and five more on the ground. A region-wide alert for the Jan. 29 Potomac River collision brought in 300 first responders from the District, Virginia and Maryland, as far away as Baltimore and the Eastern Shore.
“It was a horrible tragedy, one of the saddest days on the Potomac River ever,” Naujoks said.
The Potomac Riverkeeper Network’s mission is “to protect the right to clean water for all communities and all those who live in and rely upon the Potomac and Shenandoah watersheds by stopping pollution, making drinking water safe, protecting healthy river habitats and enhancing use and enjoyment for all.” Visit www.potomacriverkeepernetwork.org/
If You See Debris
If you see suspected debris from the collision, do not touch it, Naujoks advises. Call 911. Photographs of visual evidence and GPS coordinates are helpful to authorities. The network’s hotline is 336-809-6041 or www.waterreporter.org/.