Luckily it looks like a controlled landing on the water with few casualties.



January 15, 2009 (NEW YORK) --
A U.S. Airways plane has crashed into Hudson Bay near the Manhattan in NYC.
The jet appears to be a commuter plane. NYFD officials are on the scene. It is not clear if there are any injuries.

"This one was extremely low. I saw it make a crash landing. It never submerged," said ABC's Robin Roberts, who could see the plane from her building. "It was an amazing landing."

It is not clear what led to the crash, but it could be a bird strike, according to airline experts, who say the pilot's landing, called ditching, is standard procedure given the situation.
Flight 1549 goes from Laguardia to Charlotte every day. There were 23 people on board, according to ABC News.
Several boats came to the rescue.
"It was amazing to see how quickly. First there was one, then a second, then a third," said Roberts.

Link

My worst nightmare! I used to fly in and out of LaGuardia regularly when I lived in NYC and hated the runways there - short and right at the water.

Apparently no casualties, thank goodness.

no casualties blame the CANADIANgeese 150 on board

Me too. Seems like no margin for error but maybe it feels worse than it is. In my younger days I used to be up for a bit of a thrill and arriving in Hong Kong isn't the same since they closed Kai Tak. Hats off to the US Airways crew for getting everybody back in one piece.

What a pilot! I almost caught this flight last week. I arrived in JFK 2 hours late from all the deicing then had to drive 2hours through an ice-storm after being awake more than 24hours. It is so cold here biggest drop for years. It's going down to -20F (-29c) and I've got to go back out into it. Donald Jones an anchor man was reporting the accident as his found out that his dad was on the plane. His dad was freezing as he had to jump into the water. They think it's birds, maybe a flock of geese. Apparently they can't put meshes on the engines at it would reduce efficiency. I wonder whether the plane was properly de-iced. pilot is former fighter pilot veteran- Yee ha!

Last night I was watching an episode of Air Disasters also called Mayday. Who invents a show like this??? I'll never watch this show again I can tell you!!

I'm so amazed & relieved that everyone is safe.

Didn't something similar happen on this river about 20 - 25 years ago?

13th January 1982 in Washington...Potomac River. An Air Florida flight crashed just after take off. On that occasion 74 out of 79 lives were lost. Thank God this time there was no loss of life.

I'm in the aviation insurance industry. It was a bit surreal last night. I met up with a friend of a friend who used to be a BA pilot and is now looking to get into another career. Aviation insurance had been mentioned as a possibility to him and we arranged to meet up for a few drinks so that I could give him an insight into the business and where opportunities might lie for him. In turn he was telling us of some potentially nasty positions he had come up against as a pilot

As we downed our fourth/fifth pints, the news came on the pub TV and bought sharply into focus a lot of what we had been talking about!

Profile: Captain Chesley Sullenberger



Capt Sullenberger has been dubbed "The Hero of the Hudson"

If you could choose a pilot to crash-land your plane, Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger III would be a good choice.
Capt Sullenberger, 57, who ditched US Airlines Flight 1549 safely into the Hudson River in New York, has over 40 years of flying experience and heads his own safety consulting business.
The former US Air Force fighter pilot from California has served as an instructor and as an Airline Pilots Association (Alpa) safety chairman and accident investigator. He has taken part in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigations. According to the New York Times newspaper, Capt Sullenberger is also a certified glider pilot.

Full story

Well it's minus -20 here, it should warm up. The plane that went down in the Potomac was due to pilot error: The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the cause of the accident was pilot error. The pilots failed to switch on the engines' internal anti-icing equipment, used reverse thrust in a snow storm prior to take-off, and failed to abort takeoff per FAA regulations, even after detecting a power problem while taxiing and visually identifying ice and snow buildup on the wings. We got thoroughly deiced last week. I knwot hat he was an amazing pilot, but I'm holding my breath about the cause until the inquiry is over. Why were the flaps still in the take off position? The deicing is supposed to ensure that the flaps work, maybe it was too soon ( 3 minutes) after take-off to adjust them. The flap position helped him to land the plane. The plane engine is designed to take 2 geese each engine. It must have been a big flock that he saw at the last minute. I am reading this: Test your disaster IQ!

Where is Shorrick's analysis?

Statistically, as a bloke you are more likely to be killed by your trousers.

Rant...

Sh1t happens.. but humans are unable to weight risk correctly.

So you'll still wear trousers or use a pedestrian crossing in Switzerland or hang a picture at home.. but stop flying because of one incident

...end rant

A good landing is one you can walk away from, of course. This is a good landing.

This is the second Airbus that has crashed in NY since 9/11... hmmm

Bird strikes to planes are common, double engine failure is rare, but it did happen to Concord. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,4389907.story

I remember this crash very well .It was very cold, the Potomac river was frozen over . They where fishing people out the open water with the heli.Some brave bystander jumped in to help . Some of the victims slid under the ice.It was just terrible to watch Turned out the guy witch jumped into the water was a sheet metal worker ( What a noble trade )

Where doe`s hoppy live ?? I have minus 30 C

There is a similar incident of a plane being forced to land in a river back in 1963 in Leningrad ( St. Petersburg ). The Russian-made Tupolev-124 aircraft, then a new model, was flying from the Estonian capital of Tallinn to Moscow via Leningrad. After takeoff a bolt fell off the plane’s chassis (it was later found on the runway). During the flight assistant pilots tried to hammer the trigged chassis and even cut the bottom of the plane from the inside to do so, but it didn’t help. The plane was destined to find a harsh landing on a field outside the Leningrad airport.

More

Some people really should take more notice of the flight attendance as they go through the drill on how to put on your life jacket in case of an emergency!!!

Upstate NY, where are you? I have been told that I am talking bunk about the de-icing. The pilot would not have been able to control the plane to glide it down if it was iced up.

Just across the border in ottawa!