Originally Posted by
Volume
VMC, level fields ahead,
IMC/Night, build up areas around the airport and the chances would have been slim.
I'm guessing it was the corn fields close to the airport that attracted the birds in the first place. I'd wager they have had a few strikes from this airfield at the appropriate times of the season but a 'Sully' strike that takes out both engines shortly after takeoff? ...that the pits!
Now I don't want to take away from the crew skills that got everyone on the ground safely, but I suspect these guys didn't have time to make any significant decisions. Sully did. So he had to make decisions that could have been wrong but ultimately turned out to be right. All under considerable pressure. But for these guys , at 750 ft? there was really only one place they were going and thank God it wasn't into rough ground.!! Still, they pulled off a text book landing, saved everyone's skins and deserve to wear their wings proudly in the future with their Sully like emergency and same outcome.!!
What about the gear up landing? The checklist says gear down by gravity. So I assume the APU (first item on the checklist) doesn't provide power for the hydraulic pump system operating the landing gear? But at 750 feet.did they even go to the checklist? And if they did, would the APU have even been on speed by they time they hit? Would the gear have only been partially down anyway? i'm thinking gear down anywhere other than a runway is going to be a disaster so, maybe these guys deliberately chose not to lower.. I know 'speculation'...'wait till the report comes' out blah blah, but I just am really curious and I'm not actually speculating anything. Just wondering about the configuration possibilities that may have affected the outcome. Kudos to the crew!!