I wonder if this is now subject to revision. Someone should hire Dick Cheney in the front line of this control issue. :ok:

Top man, top job!
 

There is little to add to the many postings on this topic other than to offer congratulations to the crew, ALL the crew of 1549 for a job well done. Despite all the rubbish offered by the armchair experts, it is clear that Capt. Sullenberger got it pretty much down pat as he responded to the developing and potentially catastrophic emergency on his aircraft just after take-off.

Emergencies don't run off exactly by the numbers as they do in training and whether or not he got off a Mayday call, or any debate as to the value of such a call, or questions about the precise value of the response of Cabin Crew are all little more than idle chatter. On the day, the crew got it just about as right as it could have been, they were favoured by training, calm response, advantage of circumstances and a dressing of luck sprinkled across the top. It takes all of those to get the right result in any circumstances and none of those can be used to take the tiniest thing away from the full credit due to the crew - ALL the crew.

Many of us who fly professionally will consider what happened both in the context of relief that it all turned out well but, more importantly, with regard to just how we might have handled that or any other real life emergency in the air. Sullenberger is quoted by his family as saying that most pilots go through their entire career without an incident. In my own case, so far, he's been right and I dearly hope it stays that way. I'm 52 years old and I don't feel either desire or compulsion to test my "cool-clean-hero" ability nor to check my emergency drills in anything other than the simulator. I hope my training has laid up a bank of knowledge and automatic reactions which will stand me in good stead in the event I am faced with a real emergency one day and that's about it.

The finer points of this incident are of no importance at all at this stage.

It is clear there was complete power loss in both engines, it is clear Sullenberger did what he was supposed to do, it is clear the cabin crew did what they too were supposed to do, it is clear there were extremely fortunate circumstances prevailing at the time in terms of available first responders and, most importantly, it is clear everybody survived.

After that, ladies and gentlemen, all this "what if" stuff and "did he do this or that?" stuff is just so much waffle and about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle.

Well done again to the crew, ALL the crew of 1549.

22

The Associated Press: NTSB: River jet's engines lost power at same time

More info plus interview with capt Sullenberger had been delayed ( again)

Glide angle estimates of 16/18:1 are presumably for a 'clean' airframe. The pictures, after removal from river, show LE slats out and some flap out on sbd wing (but not obviously on port wing so could be post splash damage) and wheels up.

What would glide angles be in various 'dirty' configurations?

Passenger accounts
 

Excellent report of passenger accounts, that will surely lead to changes in SOP....

Cabin crew report they were unaware they were landing on water.
Passengers took seat cushions when they realised they were on water.
Very few life vests taken and worn.
Most passengers went to wing exits (just as well as there was inadequate space on forward slides)
A passenger opened one of the rear doors "a crack" which let in water.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/17/ny...pagewanted=all



Mickjoebill

The examination of the many aspects of this event are both useful, and distracting. The results of US Airways Flight 1549 are 155 people waking up on the 17th of January, 2009. They weren't in Charlotte, and US Airways was missing one A320, but all things considered, I will always consider this a positive outcome.
The next day, I looked out the window going through 3000 feet departing runway 31 from LGA. I assume the birdstrike occurred about the time he crossed the East River over Manhattan. I looked back at LaGuardia, too many turns, and over the Hudson at Teterboro. I used the judgment I've gained and determined I might make it, but I could not align with the runway and configure for landing with the altitude I had. Captain Sullenberger nailed it. He took the stick, he decided it was the Hudson, and delegated duties. The FO configured for an Emergency Landing, and it happened. He missed all obstacles, and performed a terrific landing. The evacuation, and the crew's actions afterwards are exemplary. I don't have any second guessing to add to this. I do have these personal observations.
I would probably have chosen to ditch. I also would have probably turned up the river toward West Point. This would have been most likely a decision with fatal consequences. The ferries and the emergency response teams were all in the vicinity of the harbor. My judgement, at that time, would have been to avoid populated areas, and if that plane went down several miles up the river, I doubt the outcome would have been without fatalities. I cannot fathom second guessing this man's decisions. I'm convinced. He did it right.
I've seen the other end of this spectrum. As an HC-130 Rescue Pilot, I responded to a number of crashes, sinkings, Typhoons, and a shootdown. That is why I feel such elation with the events of Flight 1549. I know what the other outcome looks like, and it in no way resembles what we have witnessed.
That flight I flew the next day, two of the survivors of Flight 1549 were aboard, along with a US Airways Representative. I watched them get off to meet friends and family, and I felt good. We should all feel good. Captain Sullenberger, you got 155 saves the other day. "These Things We Do, That Others May Live".

Flocks of Geese v Airliners - including looking at probabilities of Geese into both engines of Twin Airliners: http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...pdf_500040.pdf

So:it would seem the answer is in fact significantly large :ooh:

A rather prophetic report :D

NoD

Marsh Hawk

i humbly stand corrected, i was going from memory of the accident brief I attended years ago. However, I "literally" was incorrect, however, there was a lot of radio transmissions that did nothing to aid aircraft handling. To my point, what help did declaring an emergency do?

GF

May have been prothetic but not widely read:

WWT London Wetland Centre - Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT)

How close is Barnes resevoir to LHR?

Perhaps but I would be surprised if he used the word itself. Ms. Higgins was a controversial NTSB political appointee over the objection of ALPA and other groups and has little operational aviation experience. Some of the terms she's used in earlier press conferences show this.

At least Debbie Hersman has a commerical school bus driver's license.:)

They are all political appointees just some are OK.
John Goglia was the last aviation expert with any integrity.

As a glider pilot, ...... clean makes a hell of a big difference to best distance, but so does speed, and I would be prepared to bet that an A320 would need to be much faster than climb out speed to have best glide distance/ratio and no way these guys would have traded height for speed .

Also - As a pilot that does regular "off field landings" - you obviously try to be as slow as you can over the ground when landing, so once the decision has been made to land , you use whatever slow down devices you have (airbrakes and flaps on most gliders) - thus the most likely deployment of slats/ flaps here, and they were probably only deployed at last possible moment.

I think we all would like to know if the APU was still running as that would have made a big difference during the emergency.

So he did call Mayday.

In the US, who cares, saying you lost both engines and were landing in the Hudson doesn't require a mayday call. Even answering ATC if they can't help you is a waste of time in an emergency. Notice on the transcripts ATC did not ask for those annoying reports on souls on board, fuel, etc, but left them alone to deal with the ditching, probably required if you declared an emergency, or Mayday for the brits.

I dont think anyone has questioned the build quality of the Airbus, What was, and is questioned is the pilots voting member only status of the aircrafts design. I dont think that was a factor in this accident, unless of course the FP tried to climb rapidly to avoid birds and the Airbus decided that climb rate would be too much and overruled said pilot.
Again I have no idea what so ever what happened, I am merely stating that the build quality of the AB would not have been a factor. Obviously the build quality of this bird was good enough to stay together for this landing, and what more could anyone ask.

galaxy flier

Point taken, declaring an emergency was no help whatsoever in the Elmendorf accident. It may have even been a fatal distraction at a time when full attention was needed for the crisis at hand.

MH

Hudson Ditching
 

Whilst not wishing to take anything away from the excellent performance by the crew of this Airbus I am getting more than a little tired of Fox News declaring that this was the "first" successful ditching of a commercial airliner.

A Garuda 737 suffered a flame out of both engines ccaused by extreme water injestion during a major tropical storm in East Java in Indonesia in 2002. The crew ditched the aircraft in the Solo river and all passengers survived but a flight attendant who jumped from the plane died. This ditching was all the more laudable as the aircraft clipped the trees on top of a ridge on the approach and one wing hit the river bank. :D

Well, I can sure understand why. Perhaps she's a very nice person but she doesn't provide the stature and knowledge or the confidence in same, that a person in such a high place should instill in the flying public. Her briefings are stammered nonsense and one can plainly tell she is in way over her head. The NTSB should have listened to ALPA on this one. Nothing personal...

declaring an emergency...
 

I've read in the forums on liveatc.net that ATC can in effect "declare an emergency" for you, if they decide conditions warrant, in terms of their internal procedures. There are a number of emergencies recorded there where ATC is asking for the souls on board and fuel - which is important information for the rescuers - even when no "mayday" or "declaring an emergency" call was made.

All in all, relatively unimportant here... as are the 911 calls that were played in the media. It's not like all those ferryboat crews were waiting for a call from ATC to go rescue anyone...

They were probably deployed ASA flippin P :ok: