The Amazing Story of US Air Flight 1549

I am simply amazed by this story. I am amazed by the bad luck of a flock of geese flying into multiple engines. The pilot did an amazing job "crash landing" the plane in as safe a way possible. The flight crew kept order and the people on board basically did not panic. The first responders were there almost instantly hauling people away. By the time the press go there, most of the passengers were already on dry land.

I think 9/11 is a factor here as well. People take flying on an airplane a lot more seriously now, and seem to have a much better understanding of how important it is to listen to the flight crew.

But still... amazing and impressive job all around.

Plane in Hudson tells story of what went right, NTSB says

Some pretty good phots here:
http://www.theage.com.au/photogaller...608932500.html

Man, that landing looked practically smooth; as though it were intentional.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7835497.stm

While I'm sure it wasn't the intended landing (runways are traidtional), it was, as far as I've read, intentional. Both engines out to bird strikes, radioed for and received permission to land at LaGuadia(sp?), but the pilot (and probably co pilot) made the decision to go for an emergency water landing in the Hudson.

I've seen a lot of water landings on those awfuls 'Worst Ever' type of programs that get shown over here all the time. To land that perfectly on water is amazing, intentional or not. So...

Not quite sure what your point is Kestra? Do you smell a conspiracy?

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Man, that landing looked practically smooth; as though it were intentional.

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Almost as if his engines had been disabled and the pilot knew he was going down well in advance...

Hmm, I took Kestra's comment to mean something like "the crew couldn't have done a better job even if they had planned it in advance" or, in other words, a compliment to the pilot which he totally deserves.

While I am still in awe of the crew's skills to get that plane down so smoothly, I am most impressed with the response time of the rescue teams. I wasn't surprised to hear that no one died when the plane went down, but I find it wonderfully amazing that no one drowned or suffered exposure problems in those weather conditions. 32 degree water? That's basically liquid ice.

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Originally posted by Deokoria
I am most impressed with the response time of the rescue teams

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Almost as if the rescue teams were just standing by and they knew it was going down well in advance...

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Originally posted by Kard
Almost as if the rescue teams were just standing by and they knew it was going down well in advance...

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http://imgsrv.923krock.com/image/wfn..._did_there.jpg

The discussion in this thread is comedy gold.

Also, no deaths in a passenger jet, dual-engine failure, noone will EVER beat that pilots High Score.

edit - final thought, consider the manufacture and quality of that jet, designed for runway takeoff and landing, that it would remain intact in what was basically, a water-crash.

I actually heard that it was pretty chaotic as everyone was fighting to get out the safety exits. People were climbing seats and stepping on folks.


Overall, definitely good luck.

I'm very impressed with the ZERO death/major injury count, but it's not superhuman. Aircraft are designed with the possibility of, shall we say, less-recommended landing strips. It's a bit harder to get the plane ready for its next takeoff, to be sure, but they're designed to promote passenger survival. Also, pilots are (or at least should be) trained to cope with a variety of less-than-ideal circumstances; and the smoothness with which the plane was put down is really a consequence of that. You can't really do anything else - if you're going to put a huge craft down on water without killing everyone, you're going to have to do it fairly smoothly. All the same, hats off to the crew (not just the pilot) for handling it well. As emergency landings go, that was pretty well executed.

Upon reflection, I'm convinced the plane was brought down by fowl trained by Al Qaida. Watch the news and you'll learn about the shredded head turbans in the planes engines. :D ;)