This afternoon, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York at around 3:30 PM. Thirty seconds after takeoff, the pilots reported two bird strikes and said they wanted to return to land at LaGuardia. As controllers began giving directions back to LaGuardia, the pilots changed their request to continue more or less straight ahead and to land at Teterboro airport, a small airport five miles north of Newark Airport, and the nearest airport to the position of the plane.
Apparently, as the flight headed toward Teterboro, whatever power the engines were producing was either lost, or became insufficient to maintain flight, and the captain elected to land in the Hudson River, which separates New York and New Jersey.
Some readers may be surprised to hear that the plane -- even without engine power -- can glide. Since the Hudson River is wide and straight in this area, it was a simple matter to keep the plane lined up with the River, and allow it to glide down to a landing in the water.
The plane landed in the water, and stayed afloat. The slide-rafts attached to the doors provided an inflatable craft for some passengers. Others climbed out onto the wing. Several boats nearby came to pick up the passengers waiting on the wing. Reportedly some slipped off the wing and had to be pulled from the water by rescuers.
New York City Mayor Bloomberg termed it "a miracle". And, perhaps it was. Had this been night, those in the water might not have been found. Had the plane been forced to land in a populated area, hundreds -- no doubt -- would have been killed.
Some pilots who commented on news broadcasts spoke of things that can go wrong with a water landing, and had great praise for the pilot. While it is true that things can go wrong when landing in water, the captain was a former U.S. Air Force fighter pilot and instructor. When I heard that, I said, "That explains everything!" Fighter pilots are to aviation what Derek Jeter is to baseball and Roger Federer is to tennis. When they make a great play, it is only what is expected of them. The same is true of a fighter pilot. The landing was simply true to form.
Patrick Smith was interviewed on one of the New York radio stations. He did a great job explaining that planes can glide, can land in water, and are expected to float. You can read what he has to say about the accident at this link.
Planes float because of the boyancy of the fuel tanks. Obviously, if the tanks were full, the tanks would not provide boyancy. But on most flights, the tanks are not full, and that was the case today with this flight scheduled to land at Atlanta.
The plane, due to river currents, floated downstream from where it landed at around 45th street down to around 20ths street, where it was tethered to a tug and lashed to a pier a bit father downstream.
What is it that you should take away from this?
- An airliner can glide with no engine power
- An airliner can land, provided there is a plane to land, without engine power.
- An airliner can land in water, and provided the landing is well-controlled so that no damage is done, the plane will float
Even more important is this: this is the FIRST time since jets came into use by the airlines in 1958 than an airliner has become disabled over water and been forced to land!
Now, having happened once in fifty years, it would seem -- to me at least -- that this is not something that belongs on your list of things to worry about, at least, not for at least another fifty years or so.
If this accident does cause you additional stress, there is no better time than now to get a handle on the problem.
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1 comment:
I am currently working on a flying phobia that seemingly developed out of the blue about 6 yrs ago - as a child I flew all over the world because of the nature of my parents jobs - so for me, this phobia is frustratingly irrational and irritating. That said, I flew yesterday for the first time in a few years - I was terrified of having a panic attack, but using techniques I have been working on, I was able to complete the almost 2 hour flight without medication - I was proud indeed. Ironically, I found out within hours of landing that the plane had gone down in the Hudson - I'm still trying to wrap my head around the irony of all of this - so much work to convince myself that planes are safe, accidents are rare, and working to trust the process - So, this morning I am trying to process the accident in a healthy way - and to not allow it to cause me a setback - I do afterall, have to fly home in four days! Thank you for your explanation of the incident - I have been trying to avoid media coverage, since I know it can be slanted - so reading your post was helpful to me in trying to frame the story in a logical light.
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