US Airways A320 Crash Into Hudson River

They're saying 4 people being treated for hypothermia but otherwise light injuries only. A really amazing job to get it down in the river without breaking it up.
 
FOX News reports are they sucked in birds both engines, lost BOTH engines, fire broke out in at least one engine, decision was made to ditch in water while crew had full control.

Sounds like they made the right decision.

I'm totally amazed at the skill the pilots & rescuers demonstrated. WOW!
 
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TMetzinger said:
Terrific job by the crew and the Mariners. reports I'm seeing say they hit a flock of geese, and that everyone got out. Pics show what looks like a perfect evacuation - all four doors open, folks waiting on the wings and on the raft area for pickup, which apparently got there in four-five minutes.
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Besides making a great water landing the plane had to good sense to be over water that has enough traffic on it that you almost walk from one side to the other. :smile:

There were a lot of boats and ferries that responded. They threw lifejackets in the water and brought people on board.
 
Track based on the flight track data:

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mikea said:
Besides making a great water landing the plane had to good sense to be over water that has enough traffic on it that you almost walk from one side to the other. :smile:
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It used to be like that from all the crap floating in it. It's a lot better now, largely thanks to Riverkeeper and other grassroots groups.

-Rich
 
Did you hear and see the one witness that said the pilot pulled the nose of the plane up right at the last second. He said that is what saved them as it hit the water in a way that it didn't break up. I wonder what the pilot was thinking. :smile::rolleyes:
 
Geico266 said:
Nice work Mike!

I wonder if it was into the wind......
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Thanks but I didn't do it. I stole it from a Farker.

I think it only requires entering the coords as waypoints into Google Maps.
 
Geico266 said:
FOX News reports are they sucked in a bird, lost BOTH engines, fire broke out in at least one engine, decision was made to ditch in water while crew had full control.

Sounds like they made the right decision.

I'm totally amazed at the skill the pilots & rescuers demonstrated. WOW!
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Ok it is the talkings head so what they heck do they ever get right when it comes to aviation.

But if they sucked in A bird, why did both engines shut down? If the talking heads go it right, what are the odds? This could be another pilot error mistake like the BA flight that had an engine come apart and the pilots shut down the other (good) engine by mistake? I don't know nor do I have any real information.

I am reserving any analysis on this one other than, they came down and it appears that every one lived. So the hardest and most important part, survival of all, had a successful outcome.
 
rottydaddy said:
Yikes... but it looks like a ditching where everything went right. Pretty doggone cold here today, but at least the sun came out.
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Another thing that went right is that the plane came to rest very near to a commuter ferry landing, so the ferrys were right there and available for the evac. Some days you get lucky!

-Skip
 
Pretty good video here. The larger boat in the center of the live shots alongside and amidships to the plane, is a FDNY fireboat.

Second video will automatically play, early footage showing the first ferry approaching for rescue.
 
I wonder if they had time to hit the ditching switch. Must have with it floating as long as it did.

Excellent job by the flight crew and mariners. Even the pax seem to have done a good job of staying calm and orderly. I think this is the first instance of an airliner ditching with no fatalities.
 
smigaldi said:
Ok it is the talkings head so what they heck do they ever get right when it comes to aviation.

But if they sucked in A bird, why did both engines shut down?
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They "feathered" the wrong one. :D

-Skip

[Foghorn Leghorn mode]Its a joke, son. A joke, I say! [/FL mode] This is intended as a joke. I have no evidence that the wrong engine was shut down.
 
So..."ditching switch"? Someone edumacate me. Greg? Is there equipment designed to keep the aircraft afloat?
 
Geico266 said:
Absolutely. This is amazing. What a text book perfect rescue.

They even hooked a tug boat to the plane and they are towing it to shallow waters.

It sure is a good thing the pilot filed a flight plan! :rofl:
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It took until post #32 for someone to say this? What's wrong with you people? :D
 
Bob Bement said:
Did you hear and see the one witness that said the pilot pulled the nose of the plane up right at the last second. He said that is what saved them as it hit the water in a way that it didn't break up. I wonder what the pilot was thinking. :smile::rolleyes:
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Good thing they didn't "jetison the wings" like the reporter said the Cherokee did a few weeks ago (I think there was a PoA post about that). Those people needed something to stand on!
 
I just love the reporters saying that "officials indicate that this does not appear to be terrorist activity." Really? Thanks for clearing that up! My first fear was that these were Al-Quaeda trained Canada Geese tasked with taking down a flight to freaking Charlotte!
 
t0r0nad0 said:
I just love the reporters saying that "officials indicate that this does not appear to be terrorist activity." Really? Thanks for clearing that up! My first fear was that these were Al-Quaeda trained Canada Geese tasked with taking down a flight to freaking Charlotte!
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Not so fast. If they were Canadian Geese and they were from the breakaway province of Quebec, they may well have been Communists.
 
Per the TV news, the pilot walked the isles twice to make sure everyone else was out before he got out himself. :thumbsup:

But at this point it's turned into a bunch of speech-a-fying by the Mayor, Governor, and whatever other politicians could be rounded up in short order. :sleep:
 
OK, I have CNN on. I am sure this is an hour or more ago now...

Can someone tell me why that moronic news team, who have mikes shoved into the face of that passenger Jeff Kolodjay, can't either leave him the ^*&* alone or offer him a ^&*&( coat? He's freezing and he just said his pants were soaked. He's standing outside...
 
LearDriver said:
Not so fast. If they were Canadian Geese and they were from the breakaway province of Quebec, they may well have been Communists.
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Just another reason to sue Canada! :rofl: They can't keep their geese locked up and they can keep their cold air up there. :rofl:
 
Am I the only one amazed that the pax called it a "landing" instead of a "crash landing" or something?
 
Anyone check LiveATC.net for a distress call yet? I'm thinking "birdstrike" would have been mentioned....
 
SkyHog said:
Anyone check LiveATC.net for a distress call yet? I'm thinking "birdstrike" would have been mentioned....
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I looked briefly a while ago, and they were saying in the discussion that there isn't an LGA stream? Dunno... Would be very interesting to hear though.
 
mikea said:
Track based on the flight track data:

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There was a report he was going to TEB. Good on the pilot for a decision process that included not being lured into that trap - never would have made TEB based on what I see. And THAT would have been a disaster.
 
wsuffa said:
There was a report he was going to TEB. Good on the pilot for a decision process that included not being lured into that trap - never would have made TEB based on what I see. And THAT would have been a disaster.
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I think I read somewhere else that somebody speculated that assuming that radar return of 3200ft/195kts was the max alt/speed, the pilot had from that point about 9NM of glide. TEB was apparently 10NM from that same point. Dunno if that's all true or not, but it makes for an interesting mental exercise...

Figure you allow yourself, what, 500, 600 milliseconds to make that decision?
 
New info just came in from another web site. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just passing it on.

New info just came in came via a US Airways captain who says this came from a mechanic who saw the data. Word is that the Airbus can download flight data in real time. Apparently the plane did hit birds with an engine causing problems and the pilots shut down the wrong engine. Then they tried a restart on the bad engine.

In any event, they remembered to fly the dang airplane!
 
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Geico266 said:
New info just came in from another web site. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just passing it on.

New info just came in came via a US Airways captain who says this came from a mechanic who saw the data. Word is that the Airbus can download flight data in real time. Apparently the plane did hit birds with an engine causing problems and the pilots shut down the wrong engine. Then they tried a restart on the bad engine.

In any event, they remembered to fly the dang airplane!
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Not shooting the messenger by any means, but that's certainly got this aviation neophyte's hooey-dar beeping.

FWIW, there have been interviews with people who have said they heard "explosions" or "bangs" in both the left and right engines, individuals who only heard them in the left, and individuals who only heard them in the right. Not drawing any conclusions or anything, but those two things seem to stand in contradiction to one another.
 
Geico266 said:
New info just came in from another web site. Don't shoot the messenger, I'm just passing it on.

New info just came in came via a US Airways captain who says this came from a mechanic who saw the data. Word is that the Airbus can download flight data in real time. Apparently the plane did hit birds with an engine causing problems and the pilots shut down the wrong engine. Then they tried a restart on the bad engine.

In any event, they remembered to fly the dang airplane!
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I agree, this seems a little BS-ish. I'm sure the airbus can download all sorts of things. The question is, can it UPload data, and to where does it upload? And if it were uploaded, would it go to a place that mechanics have access to it? Just speculating, but if I were running an airline, I'd sure as hell not have that type of data outside of some really tight control. I dunno, maybe US Airways does things that way. Does anyone know if this type of 'real time' system really exists, and if it does if it would be allowed to touch the FDR or CVR?
 
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