Thread: Downed plane in the Hudson River in New York

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Emergency officials are responding to a downed plane in the Hudson River in New York City, according to the city fire and police departments.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/15/new.yo ... index.html


The plane entered the water after a failed takeoff, the FAA says.

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.

The U.S. Coast Guard said units were also responding, and a ferry on site was dropping life jackets into the water.

The plane approached the water at a gradual angle and made a big splash, according to a witness watching from an office building.

"It wasn't going particularly fast. It was a slow contact with the water that it made," the witness, Ben VonKlemperer, told CNN.

Any landing you can walk (or swim) away from is a good one. This pilot did a great job.

As a former pilot, I can attest to the fact that bird strikes, although somewhat rare, can be very deadly.

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Any landing you can walk (or swim) away from is a good one. This pilot did a great job.

As a former pilot, I can attest to the fact that bird strikes, although somewhat rare, can be very deadly.

I completely agree. Do you realize that this was the first successful water ditch landing? These pilots performed perfectly. Looks like a bird strike. I hope it has nothing to do with the GIANT flaw in Airbus' computer systems. I never have and never will fly on an Airbus. Boeing makes better planes.

SicNTiredInSoCal, you said that you used to be a pilot. Was it commercial, military, or private? I have always wanted to be a pilot and one day I will. I used to work for American Airlines and I worked at the flight academy. I had a buddy that was a simulator tech there and he would sneak us in after hours to fly the sims. I flew the MD-11, MD-80, B-757, ATR-72, Saab 340, and the Fokker-100. For now, I have Microsoft Flight Sim 2004 which includes DIRECT GPS flights without having to follow airways.

Originally Posted by jshhmr

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Any landing you can walk (or swim) away from is a good one. This pilot did a great job.

As a former pilot, I can attest to the fact that bird strikes, although somewhat rare, can be very deadly.

I completely agree. Do you realize that this was the first successful water ditch landing? These pilots performed perfectly. Looks like a bird strike. I hope it has nothing to do with the GIANT flaw in Airbus' computer systems. I never have and never will fly on an Airbus. Boeing makes better planes.

SicNTiredInSoCal, you said that you used to be a pilot. Was it commercial, military, or private? I have always wanted to be a pilot and one day I will. I used to work for American Airlines and I worked at the flight academy. I had a buddy that was a simulator tech there and he would sneak us in after hours to fly the sims. I flew the MD-11, MD-80, B-757, ATR-72, Saab 340, and the Fokker-100. For now, I have Microsoft Flight Sim 2004 which includes DIRECT GPS flights without having to follow airways.

I didn't realize this was the first sucessful water ditch landing. I figured pilots don't get much practice at these - thats what makes it so amazing that this pilot made it work and made it work beautifully. The guy deserves a medal.

I made is as far being a co-pilot for a CitationJet 5. This is about a 6 million dollar jet and was owned by none other than George W's California campaign manager, Gerry Parski. At that time, Mr. Parski had a net worth of about $60 million. I was lucky enough to fly a few celebs here and there and got to go to some interesting places. The plane was amazing even tho it was not the most expensive out there. I stopped flying about 8 years ago. I was involved in a crash in an experiemental plane and it was so bad that it just killed my desire to fly much. It happened in AZ, and I remember being in a hotel room after being released from the hospital and seeing a quick blurb on the local news about it. The next day, I was in the grocery store there and saw our "mishap' had made front page news on the local paper. Needless to say the plane was a total loss. It was amazing that me and the plane's owner walked away. I was not flying at the time-the owner was and what happened was he landed too "hot" and a gust of wind (as we were trying to power up for a go around) came and flipped us making the plane cartwheel.

I hated flying sims because you dont get those body sensations like you do flying under the hood for IFR training. These sensations are exactly what caused JFK Jr to crash- he listened to how his body felt instead of what the intruments were telling him and he got disoriented. IFR was NOT my favorite thing to do. One time I told a long time military/comm pilot how much I disliked it and he told me "don't worry, IFR's supposed to suck" LOL! My specialties were steep turns and ILS Landings (ILS is almost like a video game-only real!). Also I loved to impress average people with my new found vocabulary with words like "stoichiometric" , etc.... Funny thing I could tell you all about combustion and how jet engines work-but still knew almost nothing about how cars run.

If you get a chance to do it - even if it is just for a private license. The freedom is unbelievable, but the learning curve is high in my opinion. Any wrong move can cost you your life. If you are really into it-take a ground school class first and see where it takes you. I took all mine at a local college with an aviation program.

moving to other topic's

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Originally Posted by jshhmr

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Any landing you can walk (or swim) away from is a good one. This pilot did a great job.

As a former pilot, I can attest to the fact that bird strikes, although somewhat rare, can be very deadly.

I completely agree. Do you realize that this was the first successful water ditch landing? These pilots performed perfectly. Looks like a bird strike. I hope it has nothing to do with the GIANT flaw in Airbus' computer systems. I never have and never will fly on an Airbus. Boeing makes better planes.

SicNTiredInSoCal, you said that you used to be a pilot. Was it commercial, military, or private? I have always wanted to be a pilot and one day I will. I used to work for American Airlines and I worked at the flight academy. I had a buddy that was a simulator tech there and he would sneak us in after hours to fly the sims. I flew the MD-11, MD-80, B-757, ATR-72, Saab 340, and the Fokker-100. For now, I have Microsoft Flight Sim 2004 which includes DIRECT GPS flights without having to follow airways.

I didn't realize this was the first sucessful water ditch landing. I figured pilots don't get much practice at these - thats what makes it so amazing that this pilot made it work and made it work beautifully. The guy deserves a medal.

I made is as far being a co-pilot for a CitationJet 5. This is about a 6 million dollar jet and was owned by none other than George W's California campaign manager, Gerry Parski. At that time, Mr. Parski had a net worth of about $60 million. I was lucky enough to fly a few celebs here and there and got to go to some interesting places. The plane was amazing even tho it was not the most expensive out there. I stopped flying about 8 years ago. I was involved in a crash in an experiemental plane and it was so bad that it just killed my desire to fly much. It happened in AZ, and I remember being in a hotel room after being released from the hospital and seeing a quick blurb on the local news about it. The next day, I was in the grocery store there and saw our "mishap' had made front page news on the local paper. Needless to say the plane was a total loss. It was amazing that me and the plane's owner walked away. I was not flying at the time-the owner was and what happened was he landed too "hot" and a gust of wind (as we were trying to power up for a go around) came and flipped us making the plane cartwheel.

I hated flying sims because you dont get those body sensations like you do flying under the hood for IFR training. These sensations are exactly what caused JFK Jr to crash- he listened to how his body felt instead of what the intruments were telling him and he got disoriented. IFR was NOT my favorite thing to do. One time I told a long time military/comm pilot how much I disliked it and he told me "don't worry, IFR's supposed to suck" LOL! My specialties were steep turns and ILS Landings (ILS is almost like a video game-only real!). Also I loved to impress average people with my new found vocabulary with words like "stoichiometric" , etc.... Funny thing I could tell you all about combustion and how jet engines work-but still knew almost nothing about how cars run.

If you get a chance to do it - even if it is just for a private license. The freedom is unbelievable, but the learning curve is high in my opinion. Any wrong move can cost you your life. If you are really into it-take a ground school class first and see where it takes you. I took all mine at a local college with an aviation program.

I'm terribly sorry about your crash. I'm sure that was a life changing event. I'm jealous of your Citation 5 time I'll bet that was awesome! You're right about ILS training. My buddy went through school and I was with him during his first ILS landing attempt at KFTW. He was wearing his visor and looking at the instruments while I visually checked. He was just a little off. Did you ever have to do CAT 3 ILS approaches? Those scare me. I just couldn't imagine landing a plane in 0 visibility. I do it all the time on the computer, but as you said simulators just don't provide the G's and complete realism. And you're right about JFK Jr., spatial disorientation is something you can't simulate. I love pilot talk, glad to see that you're still here to talk about it!

Originally Posted by jshhmr

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Originally Posted by jshhmr

Originally Posted by SicNTiredInSoCal

Any landing you can walk (or swim) away from is a good one. This pilot did a great job.

As a former pilot, I can attest to the fact that bird strikes, although somewhat rare, can be very deadly.

I completely agree. Do you realize that this was the first successful water ditch landing? These pilots performed perfectly. Looks like a bird strike. I hope it has nothing to do with the GIANT flaw in Airbus' computer systems. I never have and never will fly on an Airbus. Boeing makes better planes.

SicNTiredInSoCal, you said that you used to be a pilot. Was it commercial, military, or private? I have always wanted to be a pilot and one day I will. I used to work for American Airlines and I worked at the flight academy. I had a buddy that was a simulator tech there and he would sneak us in after hours to fly the sims. I flew the MD-11, MD-80, B-757, ATR-72, Saab 340, and the Fokker-100. For now, I have Microsoft Flight Sim 2004 which includes DIRECT GPS flights without having to follow airways.

I didn't realize this was the first sucessful water ditch landing. I figured pilots don't get much practice at these - thats what makes it so amazing that this pilot made it work and made it work beautifully. The guy deserves a medal.

I made is as far being a co-pilot for a CitationJet 5. This is about a 6 million dollar jet and was owned by none other than George W's California campaign manager, Gerry Parski. At that time, Mr. Parski had a net worth of about $60 million. I was lucky enough to fly a few celebs here and there and got to go to some interesting places. The plane was amazing even tho it was not the most expensive out there. I stopped flying about 8 years ago. I was involved in a crash in an experiemental plane and it was so bad that it just killed my desire to fly much. It happened in AZ, and I remember being in a hotel room after being released from the hospital and seeing a quick blurb on the local news about it. The next day, I was in the grocery store there and saw our "mishap' had made front page news on the local paper. Needless to say the plane was a total loss. It was amazing that me and the plane's owner walked away. I was not flying at the time-the owner was and what happened was he landed too "hot" and a gust of wind (as we were trying to power up for a go around) came and flipped us making the plane cartwheel.

I hated flying sims because you dont get those body sensations like you do flying under the hood for IFR training. These sensations are exactly what caused JFK Jr to crash- he listened to how his body felt instead of what the intruments were telling him and he got disoriented. IFR was NOT my favorite thing to do. One time I told a long time military/comm pilot how much I disliked it and he told me "don't worry, IFR's supposed to suck" LOL! My specialties were steep turns and ILS Landings (ILS is almost like a video game-only real!). Also I loved to impress average people with my new found vocabulary with words like "stoichiometric" , etc.... Funny thing I could tell you all about combustion and how jet engines work-but still knew almost nothing about how cars run.

If you get a chance to do it - even if it is just for a private license. The freedom is unbelievable, but the learning curve is high in my opinion. Any wrong move can cost you your life. If you are really into it-take a ground school class first and see where it takes you. I took all mine at a local college with an aviation program.

I'm terribly sorry about your crash. I'm sure that was a life changing event. I'm jealous of your Citation 5 time I'll bet that was awesome! You're right about ILS training. My buddy went through school and I was with him during his first ILS landing attempt at KFTW. He was wearing his visor and looking at the instruments while I visually checked. He was just a little off. Did you ever have to do CAT 3 ILS approaches? Those scare me. I just couldn't imagine landing a plane in 0 visibility. I do it all the time on the computer, but as you said simulators just don't provide the G's and complete realism. And you're right about JFK Jr., spatial disorientation is something you can't simulate. I love pilot talk, glad to see that you're still here to talk about it!

I did some Cat3 ILS landings. Palomar Airport in Carlsbad, Ca is near the ocean so fog was a common occurance. I don't like them much either. The main thing with ILS is to keep your airspeed pegged. If you can accomplish that, then the rest is easy.

The crash was a life changer. Talking about it made me think of a somewhat funny memory about it. By the time the plane stopped cartwheeling both of us were upside down and I was knocked out for a few minutes (or maybe seconds - who knows). When I came to, I was screamin like a banshee to get me the h*ll outta there as I was afraid the plane would burst into flames. I was in a 5 point harness seat belt and was disoriented.

By the time I got pulled out, the ambulance showed up and the medics were asking me who the president was at the time (it was Clinton), but all I could tell them was "that a$$hole" - I could not for the life of me remember what his name was. I guess I had a pretty severe concussion and that was a test to see how bad it really was. LOL! I still chuckle when I think of it! Also, on the way to the hospital I was a bit put out that they weren't putting the sirens on for me!

I've been watching the news reports and I guess birdstrikes are more common than I thought from what they are saying. My bad-guess I've been out of the aviation loop for too long. You really lose a lot of knowledge when you don't do it in a long time. I was REALLY lucky for the time I had while in it, but life is good for the most part and I really haven't looked back much. I guess the mishap was something that needed to happen so I could get to the heart of what really matters. I have no regrets about doing it and it will make for some good story telling to kids and grandkids.

I'm glad we could find some common ground on something else besides IA's. There is still so much in life and in this country that is so beautiful...

Hero jet pilot avoids spotlight for good reason


Verena Dobnik, Associated Press Writer – Sat Jan 17, 4:11 pm ET AP – In this 1969 photo released by the Denison, Texas, Independent School District, Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger … NEW YORK – They are already talking about building a statue of Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger. Lucrative book and movie deals could follow.

But even though the death-defying pilot of Flight 1549 is being celebrated as a hero, he still faces an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board that will critique his every action.

That is one of the reasons, union officials say, why he has stayed quiet as his star has risen.

"Until the NTSB says, 'He's a hero,' he's under investigation," said James Ray, a spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association, which represents crews at US Airways. "The NTSB usually discourages people from calling anyone a hero until facts are in."

Although the NTSB has made no suggestion that Sullenberger deserves anything but praise for his handling of the accident, a complicated investigation still needs to proceed.

Sullenberger and his first officer, Jeff Skiles, were interviewed Saturday by the NTSB.

Sullenberger was seen entering a conference room of a lower Manhattan hotel, surrounded by federal investigators. The silver-haired pilot was wearing a white shirt and slacks and seemed composed. When a reporter approached him for comment, one of the officials responded: "No chance."

The pilots have already given several briefings to a union investigation team, to US Airways officials and to their own lawyers, Ray said. Pilots also routinely have a lawyer accompany them to their NTSB briefing.

He said the process was not an exercise in finger-pointing, but noted that the analysis can be rigorous, and that investigators make every effort to uncover instances of human error or mechanical failure.

But one thing is clear: Sullenberger is a publicist's dream.

"He's down in history now. And if he's handled well, with modesty and intelligence, he will remain a U.S. icon," said prominent New York City publicist Howard Rubenstein.

Rubenstein described the crash-landing as a "few split seconds that have created one of the best publicity events ever."

The pilot had the career and resume that seemed made for this kind of situation: He got his pilot's license at 14, was named best aviator in his class at the Air Force Academy, investigated air disasters, mastered glider flying and even studied the psychology of how airline crews behave in a crisis.

And when Thursday's potential disaster hit, he handled the situation with remarkable calm. As the passengers were helped into rescue boats, he walked through the cabin to make sure everyone got out.

Los Angeles publicist Cindy Rakowitz said Sullenberger projects integrity "by the way his heroic response is talked about by the passengers on the plane, from the moment this happened." She expects his modest demeanor to translate into a smart response to his newfound fame.

"You're not going to see this man on TMZ promoting somebody's jewelry wearing a gold chain," she said, referring to an entertainment-news Web site.

But faced with an onslaught of publicity-seekers, "he's going to have to hire somebody, or US Airways is going to be very, very busy working on his behalf" — fielding producers, directors and book publishers wanting to give him advances on his story.

As for the question that is on everyone's mind — when will Sullenberger be ready to tell his story? — Ray said he wasn't sure. But he knows there will be no shortage of offers.

"He's been approached by every opportunist in the world to tell his story," he said. "This guy could probably sell anything right now."

For starters, his new prominence is bound to attract new business to the private firm he started several years ago to give advice on how to apply aviation safety techniques to other fields.

And while Sullenberger was sequestered, the whole country was coming up with ideas on how to celebrate America's newest hero.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said a key to his city awaits him, and "Sully" got congratulatory phone calls from both President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama. The pilot's wife, Lorrie Sullenberger, said from their home in Danville, Calif., that a trip to Obama's inauguration for her, her husband and their two daughters was "in the works."

"The Facebook Page of Fans of Sully Sullenberger" had more than 172,000 fans as of Saturday. It proposes a ticker-tape parade up New York's "Canyon of Heroes," and another fan suggests the parade should be a flotilla down the Hudson, adding, "No geese floats will be allowed!!"

Other suggested Facebook ideas include the congressional Medal of Freedom, the highest honor given to a civilian for exceptional service in peacetime; a bridge or tunnel named after Sullenberger; a pay raise "and anything else he wants."

The Facebook page sums up popular feeling toward the pilot: "Woohoo!"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090117/ap_ ... down_pilot
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