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Posted on 01/15/2009 12:47:38 PM PST by Red Steel
Breaking now of Fox News.
Down that far down on Manhattan, I believe the water is brackish - more salty with the tide coming in, less with the tide going out.
Hmm. I wonder why the egghead engineers at GE, Pratt&Whitney, and Rolls-Royce have never thought about that? /sarcasm. Not to mention the nacelle designers and airframe engineers at Boeing and Airbus. Look—birdstrikes are so common that it is part of engine certification tests. Engine manufacturers have to demonstrate that the engine can sustain a minimum amount of power following a simulated birdstrike on the test stand. They test for both single large birds, and multiple smaller birds. Of course real life doesn’t always follow testing protocol. Believe me, if it was as easy as putting up a “screen” it would have been done decades ago.
It’s also the only airliner in something like 20 years to successfully land in the water intact.
It was amazing. Praise God!
The last one was, I think, that American Airlines DC-10 that went off the end of the runway at Munoz Marin and went into the lake there - that was 1985.
There was a more recent incident, but that doesn’t really count because the final resting point was only knee-deep water - Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 (a 737-300) in 2002, and there was one fatality, a stewardess. The plane was heavily damaged in the landing attempt.
So, yeah, it’s been more than 20 years since someone’s managed to put a jet airliner down on water intact.
The Air Florida Flight crashed. This one landed. Landing on calm water (as opposed to choppy ocean water) isn't really that difficult for a professional pilot.
ML/NJ
“the pilot/co-pilot had time to say over the intercom, “Brace for impact”.”
Man, that’d have you wishing you’d gone to church last sunday.
Apparently my “why don’t they have a screen over the intake” post should have had a smiley. Sorry about that.
Why not install FLAK guns to shoot down on coming bird flocks?
Link to story:
Drove an “F-4” from 1973-1980? You ARE a HERO!
Well, I was screwed up, frankly. Already corrected myself. In my mind I was thinking of water-filled fuel tanks.
While they are vented (so the fuel can exit) they would not readily fill with water.
Y’know, this may be the first successful (as in, the plane stayed together) ditching I’ve ever heard of involving a plane with wing-mounted high-bypass engines. There’ve been ditchings in the past with DC-8s and maybe 707s, and I think there was a 727 wreck where the plane did a controlled flight into water and most of the people got out (and a Caribbean ditching with a DC-9 where about 2/3 survived). But I’d always heard that it was supposedly impossible to successfully ditch a plane with wing-mounted high-bypass engines, because those big intakes would act like scoops and either rip the wings off or flip the plane over. So much for that, I guess!
}:-)4
If you check out some old encyclopaedias, you will find out that that is a change that occurred in the mid 80s. For what reason, I do not know.
“The Air Florida Flight crashed. This one landed. Landing on calm water (as opposed to choppy ocean water) isn’t really that difficult for a professional pilot”
Thanks, I saw that was the case, Air Florida (horrific images) was just the first thing that popped into my mind when I first saw the post. Just looked at your about page (LOL), are you trying to be another Kilroy.
There probably aren’t any rental cars available.
It may be a first for an Airbus, but numerous Boeings have been successfully water-ditched over the years, although doing it in a narrow place like a river is probably unusual.
It’s going to be interesting to see the results from the data recorders.
On the wing (edge) of the inauguration of desolation, all survive a US airways crash in NYC, carried upon the wings of an "eagle" (okay not American Airlines, but a big bird!). Oy vey. It's like the anti-911.
What a visual!
Aircraft ingests a few dozen geese upon take-off and the pilot makes a great landing and all are saved. Great news! Why must we now have to suffer a phalanx of useless politicians?
Funny. I was thinking that too. The first pic with everyone on the wings....It looks like a fierce eagle fighting to save her chicks. The last pic looks like an exhausted bird that is now being kept afloat by the two boats beside her.
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