Saturday, January 17, 2009
Video: The landing in the Hudson
On the small chance you have not seen it already, here is a link to the video footage of US Airways Flight 1549 landing in the Hudson and the subsequent rescue operation. The jet hits the water at roughly the two minute mark; then, watch how quickly the boats arrive on the scene. Wonderful stuff.
3 Comments:
By 
D.E. Cloutier, at
Sun Jan 18, 01:13:00 AM:
Look at the ages and experience of the crew onboard Flight 1549:
Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, III
Age 58, joined US Airways (PSA Airlines) in 1980. He has a total of 19,663 flights hours
First officer Jeffrey B. Skiles
Age 49, joined US Airways (USAir) in 1986. He has a total of 15,643 flight hours.
Flight attendant, Shelia Dail
Age 57, joined US Airways (Piedmont Airlines) in 1980 and has more than 28 years experience with the airline.
Flight attendant, Doreen Welsh
Age 58, joined US Airways (Allegheny Airlines) in 1970 and has more than 38 years experience with the airline.
Flight attendant, Donna Dent
Age 51, joined US Airways (Piedmont Airlines) in 1982 and has more than 26 years experience with the airline.
By TOF, at
Sun Jan 18, 12:57:00 PM:
DEC:
Experience definitely counts. However, there was an element of good fortune here (I won't call it luck).
The passengers/crew were fortunate that one or more of those birds didn't go through the cockpit; if that had happened you would be reading about a fatal crash in a NYC street rather than a ditching on the Hudson River. If they had hit the birds a bit earlier in the flight the pilot might not have had the chance to make a controlled ditching in the river. If the weather had been IMC rather than visual, the pilot might not have been able to even see the river, much less ditch in it.
There was a lot of good fortune that day.
By 
, at
Sun Jan 18, 01:52:00 PM:
I couldn't invent this story if I tried.
Senator Chuck Schumer got a $200,000 earmark for Geesepeace back in 2004. Here's Chuck's press release touting it: http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR02326.html
Geesepeace promotes "non-lethal, environmentally friendly solutions for dealing with geese." It looks like they put pressure to stop the killing of Canadian geese on Rikers Island ... see 2004 New York Times story here: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980CEEDB1F39F936A15755C0A9629C8B63&fta=y
Rikers Island is used as a prison and sits just off Laguardia Airport, right smack in its flight paths.
The geese on Rikers Island have been a long-standing concern at LaGuardia. They hit planes regularly and have knocked out engines before, ... So Chuck's earmark may have helped cause the Hudson River crash.
That it was only a $200,000 earmark troubling, I find troubling. It wasn't enough to do anything constructive, but big enough to be a political payoff.
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