Originally Posted by
KayPam
Sully was probably aware of how low his speed was, thanks to the appropriate information on the PFD (speed trip with orange/red colouring), but maybe he actually wanted to have a forward speed as low as possible.
Christ. This was addressed in the first reply in this thread, with a quote from the official accident report, and then referred to a few more times.
He was not aware how low his speed was, and he did not want what he had. (He wanted what he erroneously thought he had)
"the captain stated
during postaccident interviews that he thought that he had obtained green dot speed immediately
after the bird strike, maintained that speed until the airplane was configured for landing, and,
after deploying the flaps, maintained a speed “safely above VLS,” which is the lowest selectable
airspeed providing an appropriate margin to the stall speed. However, FDR data indicated that
the airplane was below green dot speed and at VLS or slightly less for most of the descent, and
about 15 to 19 knots below VLS during the last 200 feet."