# US Airways plane crashes in Hudson River



## seesul (Jan 15, 2009)

Gov't official says 'bird strike' cause of crash
By Scott Curkin; Eyewitness News

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News has learned a plane has crashed into the Hudson River.

Individuals who believe they may have family members on board flight 1549 may call US Airways at 1-8... within the United States.

The plane is an Airbus 320, US Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia to Charlotte. There were 146 passengers on board the flight, along with 5 crew members. The FAA is reporting all passengers are out of the plane, and a secondary search is underway.

"TSA is monitoring the situation involving US Airways flight 1549. At this point, there is no indication that this is a security-related incident. TSA will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates if appropriate."

The plane went down near 48th Street. The plane took off from LaGuardia at 3:26 p.m.

Government officials say the plane's two engines went down after a flock of birds struck the plane. Witnesses say it appeared the plane made a controlled landing. "It was just unbelievable how this plane landed," said one witness.

ABC News has learned 30 seconds after the pilot was headed off rom the tower to the next controllers he reported two bird strikes and he wanted to return to LaGuardia.

The plane which was over New Jersey at the time, was ordered to return to LaGuardia. The pilot saw Teterboro airport outside of the plane, but obviously never made it.

One witness says he saw flames coming from the number one engine

Ferries were rescuing passengers, some who were seen standing on the wings of the plane. Because of the crash all ferry service is suspended between their 39th terminal in NYC and their Weehawken terminal, across the river in NJ.

"There is no information at this time to indicate that this is a security-related incident," Homeland Security spokeswoman Laura Keehner said. "We continue to closely monitor the situation which at present is focused on search and rescue."

The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows, and rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane.

The plane was quickly submerged about 30 minutes after the crash.

Stay with Eyewitness News and 7online.com for additional information on this breaking story. 

Jet plane crashes in Hudson River - 1/15/09 - New York News and Tri-State News - 7online.com


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## seesul (Jan 15, 2009)

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A US Airways plane was down in the Hudson River on Thursday after attempting to take off from LaGuardia Airport, officials said.
The plane entered the water Thursday afternoon following a failed takeoff, the FAA says.

The plane entered the water Thursday afternoon following a failed takeoff, the FAA says.

US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320, was headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

A passenger said he was "pretty sure" everybody on the plane got out.

"Somehow, the plane stayed afloat and we were all able to get on a raft," said the passenger, Alberto Panero. "It's just incredible now that everyone's still alive."

A New Jersey State Police source told CNN the pilot radioed to air traffic controllers that he had experienced a bird strike -- when a bird or flock of birds is sucked into the jet engine -- and declared an emergency. 

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown also said preliminary information indicates a bird strike. The plane was in the air for about three minutes before it went down, the FAA said.

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

The New York Times, citing a local TV station, reported that the aircraft had 146 passengers and 5 crew members aboard.

The pilot tried to return to the airport when the plane fell into the Hudson, the Times reported. The Times said it was below 20 degrees in New York at the time the plane went down.

A couple of minutes after takeoff, "we just heard a loud bang," Panero said.

"The plane shook a bit and ... you could smell smoke and fire and immediately the plane started turning," Panero said. "All of a sudden, the captain came on and said, 'Brace for landing,' and that's when we knew we were going down."

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," said the witness, Ben Vonklemperer.

"It appeared not to have landing gear engaged. This was bigger than a puddle-jumper or sea plane. It was a silver aircraft and it basically just hit the water," Vonklemperer added.

An Airbus A320 can hold a maximum of 179 passengers and a flight crew of two, depending on the configuration.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jan 15, 2009)

Yeap just saw this as well. Great to hear that there were no serious injuries or any fatalities.


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## BombTaxi (Jan 15, 2009)

Yeah, good to hear that everyone was OK. I think they all owe a thank you to a very smart and cool flight crew 8)


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## ToughOmbre (Jan 15, 2009)

Sounds like the pilot did a great job putting that Airbus 320 down in the river. 

TO


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## CharlesBronson (Jan 15, 2009)

It must be an icy scape for the passengers, but scape at last.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 15, 2009)

Heard about this just now. Incredible the plane stayed afloat for half an hour, plenty of time to evacuate.


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## Gnomey (Jan 15, 2009)

Yeah, glad to hear everyone got out OK. Pilot and crew definitely did a great job.


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## seesul (Jan 16, 2009)

Yep, gotta say that pilot really did a great job!


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## lesofprimus (Jan 16, 2009)

Yea, this is all because the pilot had the skill, knowledge and balls to do it right....

Hats off to that cool cat...


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## Airframes (Jan 16, 2009)

Thanks for the news Roman. Glad to hear everyone got out OK. Great work by the flight crew.


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## seesul (Jan 17, 2009)

Does exist any video footage (or pics) of this emergency landing? I mean during the landing...


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## Junkers88A1 (Jan 17, 2009)

here is a link from a surveliance camera

Her går flyet inn for nødlanding - Nyheter - VGTV

its from a norvegian newsite


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## seesul (Jan 17, 2009)

THX for the link but it´s hard to recognize a plane during the landing...I think there must be some better footage somewhere...


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## Flyboy2 (Jan 17, 2009)

I heard that a few people caught it on cell phones and such... Can't locate the footage though..


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## Gnomey (Jan 17, 2009)

Better video.

BBC NEWS | Americas | New pictures show NY plane crash


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## seesul (Jan 17, 2009)

THX! Amazing!


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## Wayne Little (Jan 18, 2009)

My hat is off to the Pilot...

Pulled off an amazing landing with the best result possible.....


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## The Basket (Jan 18, 2009)

The pilot did the impossible.

And deserves the highest of praise.

I would fly with that guy every time!


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jan 18, 2009)

Flyboy2 said:


> I heard that a few people caught it on cell phones and such... Can't locate the footage though..



A guy in the metclub forums caught it all on pictures. His office was right in front of where it went down. I was actually getting pics and stuff of it, before it was even on the news.


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## FLYBOYJ (Jan 18, 2009)

As you folks probably heard by now the pilot is a USAFA grad - went through the soaring program!


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## seesul (Jan 18, 2009)

that explains a lot...


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## mkloby (Jan 18, 2009)

FLYBOYJ said:


> As you folks probably heard by now the pilot is a USAFA grad - went through the soaring program!



US military aviation training was the first thing that crossed my mind when I heard of this...


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## seesul (Jan 18, 2009)

They already pulled the plane out by crane...


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## Corsair82pilot (Jan 18, 2009)

Anyone notice how the US Airways CEO never mentioned the job the crew did? He could have at least thanked them for possibly saving the airline. If things had gone south, US Airways would be the target of a News Media feeding frenzy that could put an airline out of business in times like these. As we say at US Airways "The beatings won't stop until morale improves".


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## Matt308 (Jan 18, 2009)

That's your union at work. Create a divisive line between the workers and management.


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## Glider (Jan 18, 2009)

I like the quote from the Police Department, 'The Pilot cannot comment as an investigation is underway, but I can point out that we had a Bird, a Plane and Superman in one day'.

A small point is the aircraft held together really well, if it had broken up who knows what would have happened.


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## seesul (Jan 18, 2009)

that sounded good and it was very true...


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## Glider (Jan 18, 2009)

FLYBOYJ said:


> As you folks probably heard by now the pilot is a USAFA grad - went through the soaring program!



You never know when it might come in handy, an excellent job


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## Corsair82pilot (Jan 18, 2009)

Matt308 said:


> That's your union at work. Create a divisive line between the workers and management.



I won't argue that point, except that it goes both ways. I will state strongly that if we didn't have a union, the pilot on that airplane would have been an inexperienced 25 year old willing to fly for peanuts and sorely lacking training.


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 18, 2009)

Looks like the plane held together pretty well.


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## seesul (Jan 19, 2009)

Yep, even the right engine stayed on the wing...


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## ccheese (Jan 19, 2009)

In this morning's Virginian Pilot, they are picking the pilot apart on a "what if"
scenerio. What if he had hit the GW Bridge ? What if he had stalled over
Brooklyn ? What if he had snagged a wing-tip on landing ?

This guy makes a text book emergency landing, not one is killed, and he is
being rolled over the coals on a "what if" basis. Some people are never
satisfied !

Charles


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 19, 2009)

ccheese said:


> In this morning's Virginian Pilot, they are picking the pilot apart on a "what if"
> scenerio. What if he had hit the GW Bridge ? What if he had stalled over
> Brooklyn ? What if he had snagged a wing-tip on landing ?
> 
> ...



Disgusting, everyone made it out alright, why would they critcize him. Bunch of morons.


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## Glider (Jan 19, 2009)

ccheese said:


> In this morning's Virginian Pilot, they are picking the pilot apart on a "what if"
> scenerio. What if he had hit the GW Bridge ? What if he had stalled over
> Brooklyn ? What if he had snagged a wing-tip on landing ?
> 
> ...



I had to delete my first reply to this. It isn't a case of what ifs, the pilot had two choices; -
a) land in the river or 
b) crash into the city

Pathetic.


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## Corsair82pilot (Jan 19, 2009)

ccheese said:


> In this morning's Virginian Pilot, they are picking the pilot apart on a "what if"
> scenerio. What if he had hit the GW Bridge ? What if he had stalled over
> Brooklyn ? What if he had snagged a wing-tip on landing ?
> 
> ...




That is the way the News Media works in this country. Disgraceful.


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## FLYBOYJ (Jan 19, 2009)

ccheese said:


> In this morning's Virginian Pilot, they are picking the pilot apart on a "what if"
> scenerio. What if he had hit the GW Bridge ? What if he had stalled over
> Brooklyn ? What if he had snagged a wing-tip on landing ?
> 
> ...


I saw similar stuff reported here.

I was telling my wife the same thing - and if he did screw the pooch and killed everyone on board he would of been made to be the biggest turd to ever fly an airplane.

I hate the media.


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## seesul (Jan 19, 2009)

just got it by e-mail:

After air crashes, everyone usually jumps to conclusions and gets the story wrong. This is unlikely to be the case with US Airways Flight 1549, the Airbus which ditched in the Hudson River just off Manhattan's west side. The facts seem straightforward and the credit goes to extraordinary old-fashioned airmanship.

The flying world is full of admiration for the pilots who put a big, all-electronic airliner, down so softly on water that it stayed in one piece. Bored passengers are used to briefings on the "unlikely event of water landings", but in reality, big planes more often break up and sink quickly, killing many of their occupants.

Along with his first officer, Captain Chesley Sullenberger achieved a text-book 'dead stick' landing only three minutes after hitting a flock of birds as their Airbus A320 was was climbing low over northern New York City. I can imagine the picture well because I used to pilot light aircraft along the same low path over the George Washington Bridge and down the Hudson beside Manhattan.

Praise is also going to the three cabin crew who organised the evacuation of the 150 passengers. And there is credit for the French-based European Airbus firm for building a tough airliner. Among other things, unlike Boeings, the Airbus has an emergency "Ditch button", which closes vents and makes the fuselage more watertight. Airbus pilots have always been sceptical about the button, on the overhead panel. Today, they are saying today "Oh, so that's what it's for."

Here is what is known about an episode that will go down in flying lore. We do not know if Sullenberger or his co-pilot was flying the leg when the the Airbus left La Guardia, a difficult airport on the water's edge inside the borough of Queens. They were at 3,200 feet in the climb when they reported hitting large birds. These stopped one engine and severely dropped the power or killed the other one. When that happens, there is no-where to go but down. 

At that moment, the aeroplane driver is no longer a systems manager. He or she has to forget the electronics and call on the most old-fashioned aviator's skills. A Dutch airline captain called Denkraai decribed it on the PRUNE pilots' network this morning: "What a nightmare. We sit there in our cockpits for years and years and nothing goes wrong. Then all of a sudden you have seconds to decide. I salute you sir, and your crew." http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451d14e69e2010536cd9990970b-pi

The US Airways plane had the good fortune to be under the command of an old-style stick-and-rudder pilot. Sullenberger, 58, is a former USAF fighter pilot and a man who lives for flying. He has 19,000 hours and among other things, he is also a glider instructor and he runs a company that advises on safety systems and crew procedures. 

The pilots had two or three airports in potential gliding range, but from only 3,200 feet they could only glide a handful of miles, depending on the wind. Simply turning 90 degrees would cost them more than 1,000 feet. Captain Sullenberger decided that they would probably not be able to make Teterboro, the small airport on the New Jersey side of the Hudson (where I used to land). Everywhere is built-up and on the left were the dense high rise towers of Manhattan. The alternatives would have been trying to land on a highway or turn down the Hudson. Putting an airliner down at some 140 knots on busy roads would have been lethal so they chose the very long wet runway to their left.

The two pilots would have been flat out running through emergency procedures and configuring the plane for landing -- with flaps down to slow it, but wheels up (they only hinder in water). Just for the information, the plane can glide 2.5 nautical miles per 1,000 feet at an average descent rate of about 1,600 feet per minute. That meant that they had about two minutes once both engines were out. 

When the "Fly-by-wire" A320 was first introduced in the 1980s, pilots dreaded the prospect of a powerless glide. Nothing physical connects them to the hydraulically-operated control surfaces on the wings and tail. The computers send their manual commands from a little side-stick and rudder pedals to the machinery. But the power apparently worked fine as they slowed the airliner on its glide. If both engines were completely dead, the juice would have come from the batteries and a Ram Air Turbine (a windmill that opens into the slipstream but is not much use at slow speeds). Perhaps they managed to start the Auxiliary Power Unit, the noisy internal turbine that normally provides power on the ground. 

The computer's anti-stall system would have helped Captain Sullenberger slow the plane to the maximum. Flying by the seat of his pants, he would have flared it like a much smaller plane, pulling its nose up to let it settle in the edge of a stall at about 130 mph onto the water. Making things worse was a 10 knot tail-wind. At that speed water is like concrete. One of the motors and perhaps both, sheered off their pylons under the wings, as they are designed to do in a crash. That prevented the plane breaking. A passenger described the impact as no worse than a rear-end car collision.

http://timescorrespondents.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451d14e69e2010536d6eca0970c-pi

Very few airliners have remained intact after ditching. Two exceptions were a Japan Airlines DC-8 [above]which came down off San Francisco airport in November 1968. It was recovered and flew on for years. Another involved an Arabian registered Boeing 707 cargo jet in Africa in 2000. The most famous airliner ditching occurred in November 1996 when an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing was hijacked and came down off the Comoros islands [video below]. The plane, which had run out of fuel, caught a wing-tip and cartwheeled as it put down on a rough sea. Out of 175 on board, 50 survived.

Posted by Charles Bremner on January 16, 2009 at 12:06 PM in Aviation, The world, USA


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 19, 2009)

Good post Seesul. I'm no expert on aircraft, but the plane could've easily broke apart. Both the pilot and co-pilot did an exceptional job, figuring the time, options they had, and the risks they faced.


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## RabidAlien (Jan 22, 2009)

Give those pilots (and the crew!) a medal, a lifetime supply of their preferred beverage, and a VERY large raise. Training is good, but when the proverbial cowpatty hits the fan, it takes large brass balls to keep your nerve, much less help calm down and organize a bunch of commuters who are probably on the verge of panic. For what its worth coming from a guy with absolutely no experience behind a stick, my hat's off to everyone working on that plane.


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## seesul (Jan 22, 2009)

new videos:
New York Plane Crash: Pilots Demonstrate How The Pilot Landed In The Hudson River Using A Simulator - Sky News Video Player
New York Plane Crash: Pilots Demonstrate How The Pilot Landed In The Hudson River Using A Simulator - Sky News Video Player
I wonder when someone will come out with a footage of the landing itself...8)


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## Matt308 (Jan 23, 2009)

Thought you guys might want to see these...


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## RabidAlien (Jan 24, 2009)

Excellent pics, Matt!


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## Vassili Zaitzev (Jan 24, 2009)

Crap, that's amazing, thanks Matt!


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