DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: But first, our special observation of CNN's 20th anniversary continues with a look back at a fatal plane crash that made headlines on this day, 18 years ago.</s>RALPH BEGLEITER, FMR. CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is early January 1982, and a terrible, terrible storm has hit the nation's capital, shutting down Washington all together. And we get word that a passenger plane has crashed into the Potomac River not very far from the White House. And I remember an awful sense of cold and horror really, as you stood on that 14th Street Bridge looking over the railing at the break in the ice in the frozen river, where you realized this plane was at the bottom of the river, not very far away, it is not a deep river at that point. You could see the divers going in through the ice, and you could only imagine the scenes that they came across in the murky waters of the Potomac not far from where you are standing. And that was an awful scene.</s>VITO MAGGIOLO, ASSIGNMENT EDITOR: I remember the efforts of other CNN people to make the bridge -- crews that walked from the White House, a distance of, you know, several miles to try to make it on to bridge. And every day, we were in a bitter cold, and the snow, watching as they tried to bring up the wreckage of the aircraft and recover the bodies.</s>BEGLEITER: You're soaked and you;re frozen and you're exhausted because you've been walking through the city, but all you could think about was the poor people who had died in that plane crash and you realized you were damned lucky to just be where you were, even if it was to report on this tragedy.
CNN 20: Air Florida Crash, January 13, 1982