"Plane Crashes Into Potomac River," Vocabulary from the news article

For Time magazine, James Kelly reports on the who, what, when, where, and why of Air Florida's Flight 90.

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. eerie
    inspiring a feeling of fear; strange and frightening
    The roar, an eerie silence, then panic—and heroism
  2. labored
    requiring or showing effort
    Flurries of thick, wet snow swirled through the streets of Washington last Wednesday, clogging traffic and slowing down pedestrians to a labored trudge.
  3. span
    a bridge
    Lloyd Creger, an administrative assistant in the Justice Department, was inching along the northbound span of the 14th Street Bridge in his Chevrolet station wagon when he heard the roar of Flight 90's engines.
  4. skid
    slide without control
    The plane slammed into the crowded bridge, smashed five cars and a truck and then skidded into the frozen river.
    The word is used as a verb in the example sentence. In the description where "Pilot Don Usher lowered the copter until its skids touched the water," the word is a noun that means "a pair of long narrow parts on which a helicopter or airplane rests."
  5. pandemonium
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    For a moment, there was silence, and then pandemonium.
    Compare the example sentence to the one for "eerie." "Pandemonium" and "panic" can be synonyms, but their Greek roots show a difference. The "pan" in "panic" refers to the god Pan, whose realms are the woods and fields, so he was the source of mysterious sounds that caused fear in herds, crowds, or people in lonely spots. The "pan" in "pandemonium" is a prefix that means "all" and "daimon" meant "lesser god" but it changed in Late Latin to mean "evil spirit."
  6. floe
    a flat mass of ice drifting at sea
    Commuters watched helplessly as the plane quickly sank beneath the ice floes; only its tail remained visible.
  7. debris
    the remains of something that has been destroyed
    A few passengers bobbed to the surface; some clung numbly to pieces of debris while others screamed desperately for help.
  8. upholstery
    covering on a piece of furniture
    Scattered across the ice were pieces of green upholstery, twisted chunks of metal, luggage, a tennis racquet, a child's shoe.
  9. decapitate
    cut the head off of
    Two of the cars were flattened like tin cans; a brown Ford held the body of a man who had been decapitated when the roof was sheared off by the plane.
  10. hover
    hang in the air; fly or be suspended above
    A U.S. Park Police helicopter hovered overhead to pluck survivors out of the water.
  11. plunge
    drop steeply
    Lenny Skutnik, a clerk for the Congressional Budget Office who was watching from the shore, plunged into the water and dragged her to land.
  12. notable
    worthy of attention or interest
    But the most notable act of heroism was performed by one of the passengers, a balding man in his early 50s.
    The word is used as an adjective and can also mean "widely known and esteemed." It can also be used as noun to mean "a celebrity who is an inspiration to others." The balding man's heroic act is notable and inspiring, but he was not a notable (he died without anyone knowing his name).
  13. hamper
    prevent the progress or free movement of
    Meanwhile, rescue workers feverishly tossed out ropes and ladders over the frozen river and launched rubber dinghies, but their efforts were hampered by floating chunks of ice.
  14. vain
    unproductive of success
    As dusk fell, searchlights were switched on, but by 5:30, officials realized the quest was in vain.
  15. fuselage
    the central body of an airplane holding crew and passengers
    Divers sent down to inspect the fuselage had discovered that nearly all of the passengers were still strapped in their seats.
  16. elapse
    pass by
    That afternoon, the 737 had been swabbed twice with glycol, an anti-icing chemical, but more than 20 minutes had elapsed between the second coat and takeoff.
  17. diminish
    decrease in size, extent, or range
    The plane's engines may also have sucked up slush from the runway, thereby diminishing their power during the critical climb.
  18. mystify
    be puzzling or bewildering to
    Investigators are mystified as to why the plane's landing gear was still down when the jetliner hit the bridge; usually the wheels are brought up immediately after takeoff.
  19. altitude
    elevation above sea level or above the earth's surface
    Says one aviation expert: "Flight 90 appears to have been barely airborne, and may have been staggering along at maximum power trying to get altitude."
  20. retrieve
    go for and bring back
    Divers plunged into the icy Potomac to retrieve the "black boxes"—the flight data and cockpit voice recorders—that were in the tail of the plane.
Created on Thu May 21 12:56:56 EDT 2015 (updated Thu May 21 14:45:26 EDT 2015)

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