the man in the water
E877793
The man in the water is the posthumous media nickname given to Arland D. Williams Jr., a passenger of Air Florida Flight 90 who repeatedly passed rescue lines to others before drowning in the icy Potomac River in 1982.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| the man in the water canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T10657062 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the man in the water Context triple: [Arland D. Williams Jr., mediaNickname, the man in the water]
-
A.
Swimming with Men
Swimming with Men is a 2018 British comedy film about a middle-aged man who finds camaraderie and purpose by joining an all-male amateur synchronized swimming team.
-
B.
Swimfan
Swimfan is a 2002 teen psychological thriller film about a high school swimmer whose life is upended by a dangerously obsessive admirer.
-
C.
The Water Man
The Water Man is a 2020 family adventure-drama film and the directorial debut of David Oyelowo, following a boy’s mystical quest to save his ailing mother.
-
D.
Schwimmer
Schwimmer is a German-origin surname borne by various notable individuals in fields such as acting, politics, and activism.
-
E.
Man and the Ocean
Man and the Ocean is a thematic exhibition area exploring humanity’s relationship with the sea, created as part of the Man and His World exposition in Montreal.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: the man in the water Target entity description: The man in the water is the posthumous media nickname given to Arland D. Williams Jr., a passenger of Air Florida Flight 90 who repeatedly passed rescue lines to others before drowning in the icy Potomac River in 1982.
-
A.
Swimming with Men
Swimming with Men is a 2018 British comedy film about a middle-aged man who finds camaraderie and purpose by joining an all-male amateur synchronized swimming team.
-
B.
Swimfan
Swimfan is a 2002 teen psychological thriller film about a high school swimmer whose life is upended by a dangerously obsessive admirer.
-
C.
The Water Man
The Water Man is a 2020 family adventure-drama film and the directorial debut of David Oyelowo, following a boy’s mystical quest to save his ailing mother.
-
D.
Schwimmer
Schwimmer is a German-origin surname borne by various notable individuals in fields such as acting, politics, and activism.
-
E.
Man and the Ocean
Man and the Ocean is a thematic exhibition area exploring humanity’s relationship with the sea, created as part of the Man and His World exposition in Montreal.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf | posthumous media nickname ⓘ |
| activePlace | Potomac River near 14th Street Bridge NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| airline | Air Florida NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithAircraft | Air Florida Flight 90 NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithBridge | 14th Street Bridge GENERATED ⓘ |
| associatedWithCity | Washington, D.C. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithEvent | Air Florida Flight 90 crash ⓘ |
| associatedWithState | District of Columbia NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| awardReceived | Gold Lifesaving Medal NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| commemoratedIn |
essays on ethics and heroism
ⓘ
news articles and television reports about the crash ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| deathCause | drowning ⓘ |
| deathDate | 1982-01-13 ⓘ |
| deathPlace | Washington, D.C. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| diedIn | Potomac River NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| employer | Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| gender | male ⓘ |
| hasEthicalRole | hero ⓘ |
| hasFamilyName | Williams NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasGivenName | Arland NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasLegacy |
subject of media coverage and tributes
ⓘ
symbol of ordinary heroism in disasters ⓘ |
| hasMemorial |
Arland D. Williams Jr. Bridge
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
scholarships and awards in his name ⓘ |
| hasMiddleInitial | D. ⓘ |
| hasNotableAction | refused rescue line to allow others to be saved first ⓘ |
| hasNotableDate | 1982-01-13 ⓘ |
| hasQuality |
altruism
ⓘ
courage ⓘ selflessness ⓘ |
| hasReputation | heroic victim of aviation accident ⓘ |
| hasSuffix | Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| helpedRescue | other survivors of Air Florida Flight 90 ⓘ |
| inspiredGenre | journalism and essays about heroism ⓘ |
| inspiredWork | essay "The Man in the Water" by Roger Rosenblatt NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| languageOfNickname | English ⓘ |
| mediaNickname | the man in the water ⓘ |
| notableFor |
heroic actions during the Air Florida Flight 90 crash
ⓘ
repeatedly passing rescue lines to other passengers ⓘ |
| numberOfPeopleHelpedRescue | 5 GENERATED ⓘ |
| occupation | bank examiner ⓘ |
| partOf | 1982 Washington, D.C. air disaster NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| recognizedBy | United States Coast Guard Gold Lifesaving Medal NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| refersTo | Arland D. Williams Jr. NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| rescueAttemptedBy | United States Park Police helicopter crew ⓘ |
| roleInEvent | passenger ⓘ |
| transportMode | commercial airliner ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: the man in the water Description of subject: The man in the water is the posthumous media nickname given to Arland D. Williams Jr., a passenger of Air Florida Flight 90 who repeatedly passed rescue lines to others before drowning in the icy Potomac River in 1982.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.