Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Video of US Airways plane crashing into the Hudson River

I can hear Mother's TV in my room. I heard the coverage of the crash, but haven't seen much of it. I actually said a prayer of thanks over this one when it happened. What a remarkable save by the pilot.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7835497.stm

One of these videos pointed out that the plane narrowly missed the George Washington Bridge. Can you imagine being on it when it happened? I can just hear the buzz on the CB now.....

That pilot has ice water in his veins.

BMT

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Actually,he made the turn well south of the GW Bridge and started to enter the water directly opposite of The Intrepid,which is about 4 miles south of the GWB.The Circle Line terminal is the next property south of The Intrepid on the Manhattan side of the Hudson.
Some of the Ferries also use that terminal.That's how come the ferries and Circle Line tour boats got there so quickly.

I like this video better

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9e6_1232166872

I'm still amazed the plane is pretty much still intact. That pilot and everybody on that plane were very lucky.

One of the interviews on the radio told of the raft/slides being tied to the plane. Nobody had a knife, go figure. A boatman threw on down.

What do you mean kennyd? Something like ... once the plane landed in the water, the slides were deployed, tied to the sides of the plane, but when ... something, nobody could cut them loose?

And what does "A boatman threw on down." mean?

That is a definite attribute of pilots. They aren't the panicky type.

I think that the ferry boat pilots deserve a lot of credit too. They did a fantastic job of maneuvering their boats to rendezvous with the plane and get all of the passengers off. Those people would have lasted only a few minutes in that water.

The passengers and crew were very fortunate that this occurred in New York and the pilot landed in a busy waterway. Suppose this was a flight between Chicago and Detroit and he had to land in Lake Michigan.

There would not have been the ferry boats plying the waters and it might have taken an hour or more to get the necessary rescue boats there. While the Coast Guard would have arrived quickly, their helicopters and small carft would not have been able to handle 150+ people in the short amount of time available.

Typo------Since you cannot carry a pen knife anymore, the sinking plane would pull the rafts down. A boatman threw a knife down to the raft.

Years ago, I was reading an article about jetliner slides and rafts I'm pretty sure it said a knife was part of the attached equipment. In other words, a knife secured right where you would need it to cut through the line.

It wouldn't be accessible in flight, so not a security risk.

It would make sense, wouldn't it?

- Tom

The plane would not pull the slides down with it (slides are differnt then rafts). The slides are located in the doors and designed to deploy when the door is opened with the girt bars installed in the floor. The slides are very easy to remove from the aircraft by simply removing a pin once they are deployed. You can't cut the slides away from the airplane like the news says. For the most part, the news totally screwes up almost all airplane realated news. The so called "experts" have no idea what they are talking about.

DJS... Youd be suprises how far a jet can glide without any power. If you lose both engines on a 2 engine jet at 36,000 ft you can glide a long ways. Probably 80-100 miles. The crew did a very good job, but the news media makes it seem like the pilot was a god, he was not. They were very lucky that they lost the engines where they did. You couldn't ask for a better place for that to happen. To be honest, if I lost both engines I think id rather land on smoth water like the crew of USair crew did. They didn't have to worry about overshooting or undershooting a runway with no power. All they had to do was hold the plane in ground affect and bleed off speed until the plane was ready to sit down in the water. I give the crew tons of credit, but, if you want to here a heroic pilot story read about Al Haynes. He was the pilot of the United DC10 that crashed in Iowa. Now he is a heroic SOB.. He had very little control over his DC10 when the #2 engine blew and caused a loss of all hydraulic systems. That ain't supposed to happen. He was as cool as ice the entire time, that guy, now he is one heroic SOB....

3:31:00 when the plane touched water.
3:35:00 when the first ferry reached the wingtip.

Couple of minutes more and a couple of passengers might not have made it.

That ferry captain deserves a tip of the hat.

- Tom

I wonder if they will include a "cutting tool" with the life raft kits now?

Man, have you got that right!

My old man, a 33 year airline veteran, thinks the job Al Haynes did was probably the greatest feat of airman-ship quite possibly in the history of aviation.

He also happens to live in NYC right where the US Airways touched down and essentially credits the pilots with good, basic airman-ship. Nothing more, nothing less. Landing in the Hudson was the only option.

Think about it guys. Does it make any sense to build a fancy evacuation slide that doubles as a life raft and then not make a very easy way to get the slide off the airplane????? The slides are not attached by a rope, they are attached by different types of pins or attachments that allow very easy removal from the aircraft....

Brad... Thats the general consesus with all the pilots I know. What they USair crew did was nothing that any normal airline crew wouldn't do. Besides, how do we know the Capt was flying and not the First Officer? Hell, the FO (who we have heard nothing about) could have been the one flying. However, they pale in comparison with what Al Haynes did. I agree with your dad, probably the best single display of airmanship ever.

I would agree with your Dad.

IMO, a hero is a guy who does something he's not trained to do, isn't expected to do, and doesn't have to do, at the risk of his life when doing nothing at all would have meant no risk to him at all, even to his reputation.

On the other hand, I do love to see a consummate professional at work, and that's what we saw here. That pilot may not be a hero in the strict sense of the word, but he sure as hell deserves a fat pay raise.

- Tom

A jet crash lands into a river and 150+ passengers live. The guy is a hero no matter how you look at it, basic airman-ship be damned! Just ask the families of the passengers......