unit 473899.pptVIP

Lead-in Questions What was unusual about the air crash? What are the two forces at war with each other on such occasion? What made the story hold national attention? Why does the author say that the fact he went unidentified gave him universal character Was the man in the water a hero during the whole journey before the air crash? How can we describe him? Did he realize his actual situation when he was in the water? What did he do? Why? What did the man in the water symbolize? What about the water? What does the greatness of the anonymous man actually lie in Why, then, the shock here? Of the four heroes …, three are able to account for their behavior. That somebody actually did so is part of the reason this particular tragedy sticks in the mind. He was seen clinging with five other survivors to the tail section of the airplane. The man was described … as appearing alert and in control. Every time they lowered a lifeline …, he passed it on to another of the passengers. The fact that he went unidentified gave him a universal character. Yet whatever moved these men to challenge death on behalf of their fellows is not peculiar to them. * * Unit FourThe Man in the Water On Jan. 13, 1982 one of the worst snowstorms in the history of Washington, D.C. hit the city. Just about everything closed down—the government, businesses, schools, the airports. By about noon, the skies cleared and Washington’s National Airport reopened for business. The crew of Air Florida Flight 90 began preparing for a nonstop trip to sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At 3:59 p.m., the twin-engine Boeing 737 was cleared for takeoff and began rumbling down the runway on its final flight. The Air Crash To be continued on the next page. Minutes later, the plane smashed into the 14th Street Bridge, only 1,200 yards from the Pentagon, destroying four automobiles and killing five people. The jet then fell into the ice-covered Potomac River, bringing all the passengers to their instant death except