U.S. Airways Plane emergency landing in the Hudson

[Sledgstone 8,672]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480434,00.html

NEW YORK — The airliner that was piloted to a safe landing in the Hudson River was resting on a barge Sunday after being hoisted out of the icy current, and its two "black box" data recorders were on their way to investigators in Washington.

Salvage crews hoisted the downed US Airways jetliner from the river late Saturday, three days after its pilot made what he told investigators was a split-second decision to attempt a water landing to avoid a possibly "catastrophic" crash over populated areas.

The aircraft's torn and shredded underbelly revealed the force with which it had hit the water. Its right wing appeared charred, some pieces of metal dropped from the plane as it was maneuvered in the darkness, and the destroyed right engine appeared as though the outside had been peeled off.

Click this link for a compilation of all the security video camera footage showing the plane landing in the hudson.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480412,00.html

The city of New York released surveillance video footage Saturday of the US Airways jet forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River after both its engines failed.

The video, taken from the Manhattan Cruise Terminal piers at West 52nd Street, shows the Airbus 320 skimming the river's surface with a big splash as it lands.

The jet is seen bobbing in the water. Later, passengers stand on its wings waiting to be rescued as boats surround the partially submerged plane.

At one point, a ferry approaches and someone throws life vests to the passengers.

Damn. It is amazing that everyone survived.

[Ladywriter 7,783]

Not amazing, just proper training. Aside from being a vet pilot he also knew how to pilot a glider; which came in pretty handy when the engines quit. The pilot had excellent training behind him and the crew were trained to handle emergencies. The first responders (the civilian boats) have had man overboard training and thus were able to hurry in and begin rescue before the coast guard even arrived.

Things go wrong sometimes and knowing how to handle crisis can be the difference between all of those people surviving vs a really bad crash and a lot of bodies. Yes we need to look at what went wrong but more importantly we need to know what went right. The pilot crew and responding civilians knew what to do and how to do it. That kind of knowledge and training needs to permeate transportation industry (like all commercial pilots should be given glider training for free by the company) and the general public needs to stop standing around thinking somebody else will do the rescuing. Emergency preparedness is a community thing and we all live in one.

[Dubird 6,815]

I was watching it online when it happened. It was pretty amazing and just shows how proper emergency training can really pay off.

[CabbitGirl 4,018]

i watched the report before i went to work, it was pretty amazing. its crazy what some birds can do to an engine on the wing of an aircraft