US Airways A320 ditches in Hudson River - pax and crew OK !

[Depretair]

Hello,


Just reporting a news read on http://www.lesoir.be.
An A320 crashed in the Hudson river in NYC today.
He was flying from La Guardia to Charlotte, the plane is in 1 piece.
It seems that the crash is due to birdstrike.


More infos on different news websites ...

Cheers,

Olivier

[LX-LGX]

CNN Television says all pax are probably OK !

The FAA confirmed US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320 headed from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, was down in the river following a failed takeoff.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/01/15/ne ... index.html

[LX-LGX]

CNN is mentionning a source close to ATC : the pilot reported a double bird strike.

[euroflyer]

Congratulations to the crew and thank god!

Hopefully the experts will be able to extract enough data from the instruments to improve training for such situations. Succesful ditching is really possible!

[zteven]

Amazing landing on water!

Greetz



Steven

[TCAS_climb]

Congratulations to the crew and thank god!

Hopefully the experts will be able to extract enough data from the instruments to improve training for such situations. Succesful ditching is really possible!

At this point condolences to the Canadian geese who lost a relative or friend in this accident would seem appropriate to me.


Ditching on a river is much easier than at sea.

[Marten]

Ditching on a river is much easier than at sea.

Indeed, you cannot compare it with ditching on the sea, due to the waves, but much easier, I don't
think so.

[TexasGuy]

Ditching in any waters around NYC is hazardous to ones health with or without waves Nasty water there.

Great job to the crew members and first responders

[LX-LGX]

Amazing landing on water!

Indeed : the more I see and read about, the more I find it amazing how cool they remained in the cockpit. Example: the return to La Guardia: the pilot took a flight path above the Hudson: probably not only because he was preparing a water landing, but also to avoid to fly above houses and offices.

It now seems that only 4 passengers have minor injuries, thanks to the clear caution they've recieved from the cockpit just before the landing - "brace for impact".

Would be great to read what the CVR has recorded.

And those who think that ditching on a river is easy - easier then at sea: yeah, sure...

.

[Nevihta]

Ditching on a river is much easier than at sea.

Indeed, you cannot compare it with ditching on the sea, due to the waves, but much easier, I don't
think so.

Well, there may be no waves, but avoiding all the bridges and all the boats on the river, and find a place straight enough is a fair challenge too...

[achace]

So the pilot is now rated for a Grumman. Fantastic achievement, maybe the Collier award for airmanship is possible and deserving in my opinion.

Amazing that in the last three months or so we have seen four "totals" or almost, without a single loss of life.

RyanAir 737 (Birds).
We have seen the Continental 737 (Speculate).
The Zest Air MA60 (Undershoot).
The US Air A320 (Birds)

Bad for the insurance houses, but great human results!

[regi]

At last there is the proof that a civil airplane can land safely on water. It has been denied many times, even to the point where the use of life jackets was questioned.
We saw the crash of the Ethiopian B767 at the Sechelles islands, going wrong. But the background was completely different. ( hijackers on board, rough sea outside the reef, out of fuel, larger plane )
I think that this safe landing will have a big impact on aviation ( procedures, technical, design ) . Example: airplane manufacturers can be forced to make their airplanes strong enough to withstand a rough sea landing. The excuse that a 2 engine jet would never survive it has been whiped of the table.

[ElcoB]

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/us-a ... er-at-work

[Desert Rat]

Great picture!!!

Probably one of the first time where the slide/rafts have been utilised on a commercial A/C...

This is a good reminder for all the people's wich are following the safety briefing with their head in their newspaper that sometimes, shit hit the fan....

[jan_olieslagers]

Seems the captain was highly qualified:

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/Fl ... 588-1.html

[earthman]

So is this plane going to be a total write-off?

[Desert Rat]

I think so, the load and stress during the "watering" should have been quite high,

It's the Hudson River, but i guess it is quite salty there, meaning risk of corrosion...

On the other hand, the way the pilot approached the water could be very interresting to analyse for the Flight Instructors, because obviously it's was the way it should have be done...

Hat's off to the crew...

[TCAS_climb]

It would be surprizing if the aircraft was not written off. Engines are cooked anyway, all the computers are U/S, same with the wiring and the interior. I can't imagine the number of electric hair dryers you'd need to dry-off a bird of that size.

I'm wondering if they'll remove the fuel before or after they put it on a barge.

[Bralo20]

Depending on the damage to the structure it's near sure that it will be definately a write off. However it has been proven in the past that a ditched plane can fly again and for a long time. Back in 1968 a JAL DC 8 was ditched in the SF Bay during approached to SFO. Also in this event no fatalaties occured and the plane was recovered from the bay. After the plane was recovered it was repaired and put again into service only 4 months after the plane was ditched. It flew over more then 30 years after the incident happened until it was scraped 5 years ago. The DC 8 was ditched in salt water while the A320 was ditched in mixed salt / fresh water.

However, I don't see it happen to the A320, the DC 8 was a brand new plane back then and the A320 is 10yo... So probably a write off.

But they can always display it in NY at the Intreprid Museum? Then we have a long lasting memory to this event and they don't have to move it much since it's nearly on spot

[brieky]

haha... som people have also readed the discussions on airliners.net.
Feels like i readed this already once.

btw. amazing story...! Think we will never see this bird in the sky again.

greetz