Just after Sully’s adventure I (and likely a bunch of others) tried the turn back in the sim- a 767 in my case. It was a SYD 16R DEENA departure. I think we gave it a crack about a dozen times. We made it back only once or twice. I don’t think we made it back with the engine failures happening at any stage below 3,000’. We were also mentally prepped to not stuff about and turn immediately. On one of the turn backs about 3,000’ we would have ended up pranging into the Seawall short of the 34L threshold. 3,500 may have been the lowest we made it back and even then we were clean and accelerating so had a bit more energy.
I don’t know the layout of the airports around LGA or what SID he was flying but any return from below 3,000’ would have been very sporting with no margin at all for error. The least risk option was to put it in the water where people would have been far more likely to survive than put it on the streets short of LGA or Teterboro and have everyone die.
Sounds like great airmanship to me. Hopefully the clown with 7 ATPLs has retired!
Last edited by Keg; 11th Apr 2021 at 23:09.