US Airways plane crashes in Hudson River, NYC

[ghostjmf]

Took off from NYC & immediately crashed

People are being rescued from freezing water


Source NPR

[ghostjmf]

Reports are plane hit a flock of geese & made forced landing (make that "forced floating") rather than free-fall crash

Destination was Charlotte

Lots of ferries picking people off of the wings

[ghostjmf]

"they test engines against strikes of normal-sized birds", said an MSNBC interviewee, but "those Canadian geese are much bigger"

Remember what that cartoon show said about Canada....

[BackInTex]

Reports are plane hit a flock of geese & made forced landing (make that "forced floating") rather than free-fall crash

Destination was Charlotte

Lots of ferries picking people off of the wings

Whew! Glad it wasn't a flockofseagulls

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

A local attorney and friend was on the plane and has reported in as uninjured.

[BigDrawMan]

i wonder if the passengers will try to fly out again today

the odds are good that they wont crash 2x in one day

[peacock2121]

It is an amazing outcome.

The footage is mind boggling.

How wonderful that passengers could get to their loved ones so soon.

[Snaxx]

Wow, sounds like a miracle, I still remember the news of the icy runway skidoffs in the early 90s.

[marriedmefliesfree]

From all accounts, the whole situation was handled beautifully. Congrats to all.

Nervous fliers should take note that the last three crashes in N America (Air France in Toronto, Continental in Denver, and this one) had ZERO fatalities.

[christie1111]

This pilot and crew need some kind of award.

They saved 155 people.

Absolutely incredible.

[etaoin22]

This is absolutely incredible,I mean really really really incredible, even moreso than AF 340. To choose that the best or only possible runway for your plane is the Hudson in the middle of winter and then to carry it off perfectly. Kudos to pilot, cabin crew AND to passengers who could have spit the bit by panicking, but didnt. And great that there were so many ferries around to respond.

[Ritterskoop]

And great that there were so many ferries around to respond.

I have been wondering how it is that none were hit by the plane. I liked that they were smart enough to come in slowly so as not to create waves that would tip the plane or wash over the passengers on the wings and in rafts.

I am fascinated to know more about where the tugboats took the plane, how is it they are sturdy enough not to be dragged down by it (I understand they are designed to pull monstrous ships but still), and I want to know whose bright idea it was to run a cable through the cabin before it sank.

I guess we gave the story more print space than any paper outside of NYC, as we were the destination city and had a gob of folks on the plane with connections. But the time frame when it happened, we could not have devoted much more space to it if it had gone under, which everyone is VERY glad did not happen, of course. My job was easy: get the sports pages out early, and get out of the way. We did not even try to get the Hawaii golf scores in on the final edition, which will piss off a few people but too bad.

[Bob Juch]

This is absolutely incredible,I mean really really really incredible, even moreso than AF 340. To choose that the best or only possible runway for your plane is the Hudson in the middle of winter and then to carry it off perfectly. Kudos to pilot, cabin crew AND to passengers who could have spit the bit by panicking, but didnt. And great that there were so many ferries around to respond.

Apparently there was a lot of panic with people climbing over seats and pushing others out of the way.

[Bob Juch]

The plane apparently came to rest in the river just in front of my old office at Citi when I lived in Hoboken. That happens to be where I ran over a Canada goose when it decided to run under my vehicle. At least I did something to reduce the population.

That location also has a high number of the ferries that took many of the passengers off.

[peacock2121]

And great that there were so many ferries around to respond.

I have been wondering how it is that none were hit by the plane. I liked that they were smart enough to come in slowly so as not to create waves that would tip the plane or wash over the passengers on the wings and in rafts.

I am fascinated to know more about where the tugboats took the plane, how is it they are sturdy enough not to be dragged down by it (I understand they are designed to pull monstrous ships but still), and I want to know whose bright idea it was to run a cable through the cabin before it sank.

I guess we gave the story more print space than any paper outside of NYC, as we were the destination city and had a gob of folks on the plane with connections. But the time frame when it happened, we could not have devoted much more space to it if it had gone under, which everyone is VERY glad did not happen, of course. My job was easy: get the sports pages out early, and get out of the way. We did not even try to get the Hawaii golf scores in on the final edition, which will piss off a few people but too bad.

No one will care - Baby Boy is not even playing.

It is wonderful that no one from your city was killed. What a story!

[christie1111]

And great that there were so many ferries around to respond.

I have been wondering how it is that none were hit by the plane. I liked that they were smart enough to come in slowly so as not to create waves that would tip the plane or wash over the passengers on the wings and in rafts.

One of the ferry captains today said that things were in line to make this happen some how. It was the start of rush hour so all the ferries on both sides of the river were ready to go and fully staffed. But more like poised and ready to go, not yet going at peak river traffic.

The more you learn the more amazing it is.

Although they say there was some initial scrambling, no one is reporting widespread panic in the plane. One guy said a lady insisted on getting her luggage, and they helped her get it, but he thinks it is floating in the Hudson somewhere. They are asking anyone who finds personal belongings to call 311 for information on how to get it back to the airline. Bet some of it gets returned too.

And the history of this pilot makes him one of the best suited to be able to pull this off.

The picture of the plane floating and all the people on the wings is just incredible. I am feeling so good that this could have happened the way it did. A real feel good story to me.

[ghostjmf]

The news reports last night said that opening the rear exit doors would have sunk the plane; the crew knew that, & made sure they weren't opened. Also, these reports said that if the plane had landed nose-down "it would have split the plane"; the pilot knew this, & was very careful how he brought the plane on to its water-runway.

[Appa23]

From all accounts, the whole situation was handled beautifully. Congrats to all.

Nervous fliers should take note that the last three crashes in N America (Air France in Toronto, Continental in Denver, and this one) had ZERO fatalities.

I heard on the radio that it has been two years since there has been a fatality.

[Bob Juch]

The news reports last night said that opening the rear exit doors would have sunk the plane; the crew knew that, & made sure they weren't opened. Also, these reports said that if the plane had landed nose-down "it would have split the plane"; the pilot knew this, & was very careful how he brought the plane on to its water-runway.

I saw one guy quoted who said, "We couldn't get the rear exits to open."

Good thing!

[marriedmefliesfree]

The picture of the plane floating and all the people on the wings is just incredible.

Several years ago, former PITA boyfriend TickBoy and myself were out at a bar with some friends. One of the friends was asking about plane crashes, specifically if it were really possible to actually survive a ditching. I explained that large modern jets are designed to float if the pilots are able to bring it into the water at just the right angle and speed, and that the wings and doors should be at water level long enough to evacuate. That's what I'd been taught in my training, and knew that at least one other plane had been able to do this (some cargo 777 off the coast of Africa I believe). PITA former boyfriend TickBoy, himself a pilot for a regional carrier flying small barbie jets, laughed, said I was a fool to believe that, and that the jet fuel in the water would likely do in anyone lucky enough to get out of the plane anyway. He was really not a very smart fellow, was rather insecure, and always got his panties in a wad if I knew something that he didn't. I'm sure the friend took the big bad pilot's word over mine, and I let it go anyway as I had nothing to prove. (This always got his panties in an even bigger wad, which was fun.)

Is it wrong that I feel vindicated?

[macrae1234]

I would have believed you and you are well rid of him

[SportsFan68]

The picture of the plane floating and all the people on the wings is just incredible.

Several years ago, former PITA boyfriend TickBoy and myself were out at a bar with some friends. One of the friends was asking about plane crashes, specifically if it were really possible to actually survive a ditching. I explained that large modern jets are designed to float if the pilots are able to bring it into the water at just the right angle and speed, and that the wings and doors should be at water level long enough to evacuate. That's what I'd been taught in my training, and knew that at least one other plane had been able to do this (some cargo 777 off the coast of Africa I believe). PITA former boyfriend TickBoy, himself a pilot for a regional carrier flying small barbie jets, laughed, said I was a fool to believe that, and that the jet fuel in the water would likely do in anyone lucky enough to get out of the plane anyway. He was really not a very smart fellow, was rather insecure, and always got his panties in a wad if I knew something that he didn't. I'm sure the friend took the big bad pilot's word over mine, and I let it go anyway as I had nothing to prove. (This always got his panties in an even bigger wad, which was fun.)

Is it wrong that I feel vindicated?

Not at all.

When I was reading the sentence about "just the right and speed," I thought about the ocean crash scene in Air Force One. One of these days I'm going to look up "The Making of Air Force One" and see how they did that.

[themanintheseersuckersuit]

The chances of surviving a crash are surprisingly high

[marriedmefliesfree]

The news reports last night said that opening the rear exit doors would have sunk the plane; the crew knew that, & made sure they weren't opened.

The cabin crew have a certain amount of training on each aircraft that they work on...if they haven't had that specific training, then they are not qualified to pour cokes on that plane. Every aircraft type has different criteria for the use of the doors..some have no restrictions and any door/window can be used at any time barring any specific hazard at that exit. Most are tail-heavy, so the rear doors shouldn't be used in a ditching. We're taught to do a quick 30-second review just before every flight to consider all of these things...most major airlines fly quite a few different types of aircraft. We have 10 different aircraft types at CO, and of course every position on the plane has different responsibilities. It's a lot to remember when you are exhausted from 16 hour duty days, weather and other delays, blah blah blah. I'm glad those USAirways FAs were on the ball.

[silvercamaro]

I was relieved to read in a news story that the plane had a switch in the cockpit that kept the read doors from being opened and sealed off other openings that could leak. Yesterday afternoon, I had visions of some poor flight attendant trying to keep people away from the rear doors as some big idiot passenger in a panic pushed him or her out of the way.

On top of dealing with everything else in the chaos, kudos to the cockpit crew for remembering to trigger that switch while the plane was going down.