IN 1984 I WAS HIRED as the technical advisor for an NBC television network feature, Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac. This docudrama was based on the story of the Air Florida tragedy involving a Boeing 737 that crashed into the 14th Street Bridge and plunged into the icy Potomac River two minutes after lifting off from Washington National Airport, now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), on January 13,1982. During the numerous days spent on the set, I got to know various members of the production team as well as visitors attracted to the set by the subject of the film. One was a pilot who also was a makeup artist for the studio. I asked him at one point why he seemed to be studying my face. "I was just thinking," he replied, "how easy it would be to make you look like Howard Hughes." This was when I was younger, of course, and my face was much thinner. I was amused by his observation, and we eventually traded business cards, neither of us having reason to believe we would ever meet again.
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