Big plane goes down in Hudson River

[FatDog]

I can't say for sure, but that pilot's senior age and wisdom, mixed with his gut intuition, was something that foklore will be built upon.

It looked like he brought it in slower than possible to still be able to remain in control, but then at the last second even raised the nose a bit to make for a flat landing. !
A passenger on board said it felt like the plane had 'just hit a couple little speedbumps and then hit a little obstacle on the road.'
All lived, barely any scratches, everyone was calling from their still working cell phones while standing safe and dry on the wings of the plane in 33 degree water.

Impressive

[chasfm11]

I think the "miracle" nature of the event goes beyond the pilot, who was clearly masterful at missing the GW Bridge and keeping the plane in one piece as it hit the water.
- the Circle Line boats who were there in minutes to provide rescue help.
- the mobilized and well coordinated FDNY and NYPD response. 9-11 clearly helped them a lot.
- the level headed passengers on the plane. It would have been really easy for me to panic under those conditions. My hat is off to all of them for simply following the evacuation instructions and waiting for rescue.


Very impressive.

[doc]

Perhaps there were prayers from onboard the plane answered when they saw the engine on fire and the other losing power. As a buddy used to say, 'there are no atheists in a fire fight' and I suspect none when a plane is headed for a crash.

This was an outstanding job of flying and one of the passengers in the hospital said this AM that one of the pilots had given him a shirt of the pilots back. The passenger still had the shirt there with him.

[TW]

Everything worked that day...... not ONE second to spare!!!!
I'm pretty sure, it will never be done again....
Look at the DC 10 accident years ago ! or the Air Canada 767 Glider, when it ran out of fuel.

[read & learn]

As a iRV2 member, who just happens to live on the Hudson River in this area knows, that if the pilots tried to land the plane anywhere else on the river there would have been a protental for a large number of deaths for no other reason then LOCATION. This location on the river around 42nd st is the most active area for ferry and circle line traffic. The time it would have taking to get rescue craft to any other area on the river would have been at least 20 minutes or more.
As seen in some of the pictures the first boat to get to the plane was one of the passenger ferries that go back and forth across the river, before the doors were even opened.

[rjf7g]

This was a case of a bad thing happening being followed by 1,000,000 good things. As I watched NBC's story about the pilot tonight, the thought that came to my mind was, "Wow, his family must be feeling pretty proud right now." Talk about being at the top of your game!

[AuntSmurf]

The entire thing was nothing short of amazing! CBS talked to the pilot's co-workers and his sister. Co-workers said that he has always been one of the most level-headed pilots they have ever worked with. But, his sister humbly said that he was just "doing his job". And the rest of us are so very glad that he was so good at "doing his job"!

[FatDog]

The one thing that I am curious about, is that the pilot hasn't been interviewed on the news yet.
His wife was on the t.v. today and she said that he is still sequestered (!?) and even he doesn't know what a big deal this all is because he hasn't really seen any television yet.

Who sequesters a pilot after something like this?? ... the airlines?? .. the Feds?
And what is he sequestered from?

[rjf7g]

That was interesting to me, too. I assume it is the feds (FAA, Homeland Security, etc.) that are doing this. It could be that it has always been standard operating procedure but we haven't really had any event like this that has gotten so much air time.

[FatDog]

speaking of S.O.P. .... remember when the first Apollo missions were going up into space, and especially Apollo 11 that landed on the moon, ?
i remember that some (or all) of those original missions had the astronauts quarantined for 72 hours after landing back here on earth
(is/if my memory correct about that?)

and these days we fly up into space yearly and no one is quarantined. Well admittedly we haven't set foot on the moon in our recent expeditions. But I don't think we will quarantine our moon landers any more.

[lthrnk]

Al I know is that the next time I fly I want him in the left seat. Can't be anyone better than he is.

[rjf7g]

He's being interviewed on NBC Monday AM.

[Jeff_in_The_Dalles]

There was a thing about some of his background. It sounds like he is quite the expert about aviation safety, beyond the high level of skill of the typical commercial pilot.

One of the experts the news was interviewing was saying that they train to do emergency water landings, and if you do it as trained, it won't breech the fuel tanks or cargo compartment and the aircraft will float for considerable time.

Anyhow, I'm sure he didn't have much time to decide if they could glide to that other airport or not.

If there was any doubt if they had enough airspeed and altitude to make the airport, he really made a good decision to dunk in the river. If he'd tried for the airport and fell short, there might have been no one on the plane who lived, plus casualties on the ground...

[DriVer]

The air craft commander did the right thing at the right time and I'm sure that if you asked him and being the professional that he is, he'll tell you that he was just doing his job and then with a sense of humility.

True professional people especially pilots are such men. I admire his professionalism and that of the aircraft crew and I commend the actions that were taken to save every life aboard that aircraft including the fact that the Captain was the last man the leave the ship.