Hero of tragedy

Press, 15 January 1982, Page 1

Hero of tragedy

NZPA Washington A good Samaritan Federal bureaucrat stuck in traffic became the dramatic hero of an icv tragedy, diving into the freezing waters of the Potomac River to rescue a stunned survivor of the airline crash.

Leonard Skutnik 111. aged 28. a worker at the Congressional Budget Office, defied police and fire officials at the crash site to take a plunging dive between the ice floes, pluck an Air Florida stewardess. Kelly Dunan. from the river and drag her to safety.

Mr Skutnik’s brave act provided the most forceful television footage of the disaster as the young woman grabbed for a rescue line dangled from a helicopter, could not hold on. and floundered. helpless in the water. As the helicopter went out further from the shore to retrieve another woman survivor. Mr Skutnik stripped off his jacket and boots and

tossed his watch in the snow to swim out about six metres to rescue Miss Dunan.

Later, weary, sipping a cup of coffee’ and feeling very, very good about his day. Mr Skutnik told his story. He was returning home to suburban Lorton. Virginia, from his work — he delivers the mail, runs the photo-copying machine, and does chores for the budget office — when his carpool of five got stuck in traffic. A man came running towards them calling for rope and they got out of their car and scrambled down the river embankment to see if they could help.

"There it was. The wreckage from the plane and five people clinging to it." Mr Skutnik said.

As police and fire officials arrived on the scene, about five minutes after Mr Skutnik. his father, and others had arrived, they told the spectators to stand back. A helicopter. Mr Skutnik said, tried to rescue Miss

Dunan. but she could not cling to the lifepreserver. "She let go about 20 feet from the shore. That meant there was nothing left. She had just gone out. She was in the water so long. When she let go of the rope she was out. She was going under. "The firemen and police didn’t jump in. They were all standing there, trying to throw ropes — unsuccessfully.

"I guess I did what everybody else was thinking, standing on the shoreline there. Something just hit me. I jumped in." Mr Skutnik was treated for exposure at a hospital and said he felt fine. His wife, Linda, mother of their two sons, eight and six months, was thrilled to see her husband's daring rescue on television. Miss Dunan. meantime, was in a serious condition in a Virginia hospit u.

Further report. Page 6.