Plane Down in Hudson River - NYC

[juniour jetset]

The pictures show a pretty smooth water surface, this must have helped matters tremendously as landing on open sea with ocean swell running must decrease the odds of success quite a bit?

any oceanographer/aircraft ditching experts out there like to comment further on this?

[forget]

the footage looks like only about half the pax are wearing their lifevests.

Lifejackets were thrown from the boats. I'd guess that US Air A320s use seat cushions for 'flotation devices'. No?

[B2Eng]

A Great Job

To all of the crew members involved A GREAT JOB!!! Thats what you guys and gals are there for..... today you are not the Glorified Bus Drivers or Trolley Dollies often referred to....but the professionals that sit in the sim and practice for this hoping that you'll never need it, take the Pax flack and when called upon do a GREAT JOB!!!

[glad rag]

Think it was more a case of " Dude I ain't getting in that water"

[DEFIE]

looking at the data from flight aware and the trace of the flight plan it appears that the PF "Picked his spot" for the waterlanding. Almost used the hudson as a runway.. Makes it even more commendable

[MountainSnake]

Wonderful Crew!

AMAZING A320!

[satmstr]

i am speechless, well done crew!!! Cant wait to see the FDR & CVR Data as it surely will now be a learning tool for upcomming pilots to train for ditching.. once again congrats to crew

[galaxy flyer]

aircraft ditching experts

The most current such experts are busy at the moment, at a meeting with the NTSB

[VAFFPAX]

Those who mentioned Ethiopian Airlines 961 and said it wasn't successful should remember that many people who didn't make it out inflated their jackets INSIDE the plane, getting trapped as the fuselage sank. So yes, Ethiopian was technically a successful ditching, but it reiterates the importance of listening to the safety briefing.

My hat off to the f/c in this instance. Well done guys, that's why we have the faith in you up front. That all pax made it out ok is very good news, especially in the temps they have in NA around this time of year (I wouldn't want to be floating in the Hudson in winter).

No doubt the airframe will be recovered, cleaned up, inspected and put back to use?

S.

[nahsuD]

Originally Posted by iwalkedaway

Interesting that she has evidently floated a considerable distance from the touch-down point - at last the tug has the drift under control.

Great, great job by the crew.

The river runs a good 4 KTS at this point when the tide is ebbing.

[simfly]

Initially there were pruners slating the press for saying "they avoided the skyscrapers etc etc", I think there is a very good chance that the pilots DID do exactly that! I'm sure they would have gone for the water over buildings.... Anyway, there's one crew (including cabin crew!) who should never have to earn their money ever again, must have been their worst few moments in their lives to experience, but also their proudest!

[DEFIE]

Couragous probably too small a word. This crew arrear to have handled this like a trp in the sim.. Nerves of steel and razor sharp reactions

[Meeb]

Well done to all the crew, and whoever had their hand on the stick... you are a true aviator my friend...

Congrats to Airbus for building a robust aeroplane...

[5N-OSA]

Great Job.... Plane, Passengers and Pilots are all intact, possibly see this in future flying textbooks...

[awblain]

Calm Hudson helps

No intent to diminish the crew's achievement, but as discussed above that stretch of the Hudson is well protected from swell, and is close to flat calm (so a good choice of target). I reckon that moves ditching from `impossible' to `very difficult'.

I love the Faux News/Fox Noise report about hard/warm and soft/cold water. Utter bollix. Pure `Brass Eye' episode three - they might even ascribe the success of ditching to the `heavy electricity' coursing through the FBW system: Brass Eye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Re-Heat]

Those who mentioned Ethiopian Airlines 961 and said it wasn't successful should remember that many people who didn't make it out inflated their jackets INSIDE the plane, getting trapped as the fuselage sank.

The coral reef hardly helped...

[cats_five]

Originally Posted by Faire d'income

Great performance by the crew if they ditched safely.

Also great that the boats got there quick enough to get the survivors.

Yes, great performance by the fcrew, but the Hudson is alive with ferries. It wouldn't have taken much time at all for them to gather and start taking off the passengers and crew.

[golfyankeesierra]

During flameout approaches/landings in the simulator the non-flying pilot is reduced to a cheerleader.

In most planes the pilot in the LH seat (= captain) flies because he is the only one with instruments on stby power. And the other pilot is very, very busy with a relight.

And as far as the Ethiopean was concerned. Wasn't he hi-jacked (or was that another one)?
Bit difficult to succesfully ditch while wrestling with a hi-jacker on the controls.

[Lost in Saigon]

I hate to be a party pooper, BUT..... I can't help but wonder how it is that BOTH engines were so badly damaged by bird ingestion that they could not continue to fly. I don't believe this has ever happened before. Has it?

Does anyone else besides me consider that maybe this crew screwed up? Maybe they actually shut down the good engine during a severe damage engine shutdown while attempting to return to the airport.

At low altitude there would have been no time to restart it.

[misd-agin]

junior jetset - waves obviously make it tougher. Smooth water is always better

At 3000' after departing LGA your options are poor and worse. Built up area and/or heavily wooded, with few open spots other than the water.

The a/c was at about 210 kts, which would be very close to best glide speed(L/D). Standard glide ratio is about 18:1 so they were landing in the next 9 miles. So they had about 3 minutes to touchdown and had to make the command decision, after/while completing immediate actions for dual engine failure, to select their crash site.