Yeah, i'm pretty sure this is indeed the first successful ditch of a large airliner.

I was one of those who didn't think it was possible, and that the water landing briefings were bunk.. i was wrong. :P

Looks like the pilots did a great job, all the news reports saying it hit a flock of geese 3 minutes after departure, 148 on board all survived.

The other successful ditching was the Ethiopian 767 that ran out of fuel.The landing would have been less eventful if the crew hadn't been having an argument with a hijacker at the moment of impact!
Kudos to this crew for accomplishing this!

There are quite a few passenger ferry boats that transit the Hudson river. From early reports the first ferry boat was on scene shortly after the aircraft ditched and started pulling the passengers off of the wings and out of the water. There were at least four or five ferry boats at the site before the first fire/rescue boats arrived.

A passenger who was on one of the ferry boats that took part in the rescue stated that he ferry he was on arrived in about two minutes after the airliner ditched in the river.

NYC police now report that all passengers have been rescued with no serious injuries. Divers have gone into the cabin to assure that all persons have been rescued.

Numerous reports from various sources all state that the ditching was caused by bird strikes causing the failure of one engine and then shortly the second engine failed.

No matter the cause, an excellent job of ditching by the crew, also an excellent job by the cabin crew in the evacuation. Superb response by the local ferry boats should be noted as well.

Again, no reports at this time of any serious or critical injuries. Let us hope that stays true.

And there was that DC9 in the Caribbean.

Flight Track
 

The CNN now comment what is a posible Bird Strike

http://news.sky.com/sky-news/content...3/15204452.jpg

http://i.usatoday.net/news/_photos/2...lane-crash.jpg

http://estaticos02.cache.el-mundo.ne...32052793_0.jpg

The Ethiopian flight wasn't successful, the plane broke up on impact and there were many fatalities. The fuselage of this aircraft looks in tact.

Wikipedia has a few : Water landing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Great work
 

Those FlightAware tracking numbers from STN Ramp Rat look like they might show a remarkable text book job - please let all be safe - because if they are, there's a few guys / girls who've earned many lifetime's cool free beers after work :ok:

Watching it on CNN, those guys earned their salary this month for sure! And what will their beers taste good tonight.

It is now more then 50 minutes since it ditched and it's still afloat.
Just out of interest, some questions for the A320 guys:

-does it have a ditching pushbutton (as a A330 has, closing outflow valves and vents etc)?
-what's the powersource after a double flameout, emer gen or battery?

What an incredible job by PF. Of course not all facts out yet, but if it is true that everyone is accounted for and safe, then this must be a first, right? Anyone else know of an example of a commercial ditching with no loss of life and (apparently at least) managing to maintain structural integrity. Maybe some good news in the world at last! Can't wait to hear the crews account if/when it is made public.:D

Important lesson - stay calm. Many, if not most, of these situations are survivable.

anybody knows how many minutes the aircraft remained in the floating attitude?

on the A320 AOM there are no clues for the probable floating time, and this number would be "nice to know" for all the bus-drivers.

from the picture i saw, the attitude is exactly the same estimated by airbus on the AOM (assuming there were no structural damages) and that gives an idea that the crew did an excellent job bringing the aircraft down fairly intact:D

There was a commercial airliner ditching in 1956 with a Pan American Stratocruiser in which all survived. Ditto an Aeroflot TU-124 in 1963 near St Petersburg.

A320 has a ditching pushbutton so it can be prepared quickly.

Emer Gen comes off the RAT which obviously is useless at low speed and I guess when you are ditching you are as slow as possible.

BAT power only at touchdown I'd say.

Good Job
 

Great job to all involved. Looks like the response was fast and coordinated, no doubt saving lives. Luckily, it was during daylight.

Watching Sky it looks as though it is lashed to an FDNY fireboat and is being moved.
Shot showed a rope/strop wrapped round upper fuselage through the front doors