US Air 1549 NYC Flight Track

Goddam heroes

Brilliant flying captain and great work aircrew. Not a single loss of life in a water ditching is fantastic. Kudos to all aboard.

So does anyone know if there were any doggies or other pets on board? I assume the cargo is toast, but it may still be dry since the belly is normally pressurized.

So all you professional pilots will probably try this in the sim next time. I would like to know how successful you are. I suspect that this will take some effort to get it right, that is, no breakage of the fuselage. I suspect after these sim runs, we will discover what great pilots these guys really are.

Should have went to teb

response to johnny stick

Heard there were birds aboard but shound like they were cooked

Cooked and diced... very funny

how come he did not go back to the airport

We do not practice ditching in the simulator.

No-one knows what the actual dynamics are so there is no accurate simulator modeling available.

No way to actually practice in the simulator and be able to accurately judge the outcome.

I keep hearing about a "ditching button" that Airbus has which helps seal up the lower part of the plane for a ditching. Is this BS or true? Do they close up the outflow valves and lock the negative pressure relief vents?

So, if only one engine has been on fire, does it mean the pilot could have returned to the runway? Or... Is A320 not capable to fly safely on one engine with the full load? Let's see what NTSB will suggest...

For all those who commented that the pilot SHOULD have landed at TEB or why didn't land back at LGA, I would suggest you look at the data that Jon has put up and see what is the maximum altitude achieved when the pilot most likely lost power to BOTH engines. This was a dual engine flameout. It shows that the max altitude was 3200ft. At that height, there is no way he could firstly glided back at LGA and secondly land at Tet without risking a crash into a populated and densely area. That's why he made the decision to ditch into the Hudson River. He had plenty of room with the river to maneuver to safely stall the plane into a soft crash landing. A pilot not only has to be responsible for the passengers on the plane but also responsible for those who are on the ground.

I have two questions:

Did the cold air (heavy air) aid in the successful landing? Then a summer hot air landing would need different adjustments in flying. The pilot did a remarkable job with the hand delt the aircraft.

Was there a tail wind traveling down the Hudson due to out going tide conditions? If this is true, then this adds to the measure of the pilots excellent skills.

Suland,

All twin engined commercial aircraft are certified to fly on one engine. If fact they are certified to take off on one engine once past the decision speed (known as V1) on the takoff roll.

Assuming there were no mistakes on the part of the crew (and I have no reason to believe so), they had some pretty good critical thinking skills in operation at the time. This is not something that is part of the pre-takeoff discussion in the flight deck.

The transcripts on the CVR will be fascinating.

The Airbus 320 series is equipped with a ditching pushbutton. Assuming the pressurization system is in automatic, this system will close all doors/vents below the waterline; outflow valve, avionics vents, pack ram air doors etc.

This switch is actually utilized quite often. Whenever the airplane is de-iced the ditching PB is utilized to seal the cabin so that passengers do not breath the glycol fumes.

The Airbus 320 series is equipped with a ditching pushbutton. Assuming the pressurization system is in automatic, this system will close all doors/vents below the waterline; outflow valve, avionics vents, pack ram air doors etc.

This switch is actually utilized quite often. Whenever the airplane is de-iced the ditching PB is utilized to seal the cabin so that passengers do not breath the glycol fumes.

The Airbus 320 series is equipped with a ditching pushbutton. Assuming the pressurization system is in automatic, this system will close all doors/vents below the waterline; outflow valve, avionics vents, pack ram air doors etc.

This switch is actually utilized quite often. Whenever the airplane is de-iced the ditching PB is utilized to seal the cabin so that passengers do not breath the glycol fumes.

I think the river is (was) the best choice, since landing at either Teb or point of origin would require some maneuvering. Without knowing the glide characteristics, I imagine it would be pretty hard to get on the right approach for a dead stick landing. If they were at 10K+ feet I can see this being a little easier. The river is just a really long runway, as long as you avoid the bridges.

Was there a tail wind traveling down the Hudson due to out going tide conditions? If this is true, then this adds to the measure of the pilots excellent skills.

The tidal flow doesn't affect which direction the wind blows.

However a tidal flow in the direction of flight would help by effectively reducing the touch down speed. This could be a big factor as to why the Airbus stayed together

Latest news after NTSB decripted the voice recorder and flight data recorder say that at about 3000feet bird strike occured and BOTH engines failed at a time. So, the river was a 100% survival need as otherwise it could have became one of biggest airdisasters in the history of the US. I say pilots, crew are heroes for making the accident a real happy end drama. This accident makes me think about some kind of special nets or other shields in front of the engines (if there are only two onboard) or what about 4-engine configuration being helpful in such situations.

Suland, nice thoughts but do you how many times both engines are taken out by birds. This was probably a rare first. There are about 4000-6000 commercial/exec jets in the sky most of the day....say an average of a 2 hr flight. Say it has been around >20 years. That's about one event per billion take/off landings. OSHA thinking only goes so far......Most life/limb structures (like buildings) are designed with x5-x10 safety; aircraft are only design with x2 safety. Reason ....you'll never get the Empire State Bld to fly.....

As far as I know there are about 7000 to 8000 planes in the air every second all over the world. But it really does not make me think that it is simply impossible for myself to be in such situation, as happened in NY. It's great that everything got solved in the last accident. Accidents like this happen very often but mostly with one engine affected. I still think NTSB will propose some kind of ne approaches for the safety after this accident.

The very cold air temp on acc date did indeed help- air density iincreases with lower OAT- the air density factor "rho" is a linear variable in the basic lift equation. Therefore, the higher air density provided greater lift and enabled a lower airspeed at impact with the river surface. Another element of luck is the capt is an experienced glider pilot. How lucky can you get? According to the ground track plot as derived from the radar "hits", the a/c passed direcctly over my apt bldg- but I wasn't home at the time.

Great cockpit crew and great cabin crew.
God bless you all

No doubt the landing gear was up by the time the plane took the bird hits and lost both engines. To keep the aircraft in one piece while landing on terra firma, the pilot would have had to get his landing gear back down and locked. The question is, could he have done so with little or no hydraulic pressure (normally provided by operating engines) to operate the gear, and even less clock time? If the answer is “no”, boy, were Sullie’s many decisions the right ones! Landing anywhere without wheels would have resulted in many casualties.

NC