Posted on 01/15/2009 12:47:38 PM PST by Red Steel
US Airways Flight 1549 descends on its way to an emergency ditching in the Hudson River, New York, Thursday Jan. 15, 2009. The Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte, N.C., struck a flock of birds just after takeoff minutes earlier at LaGuardia Airport, apparently disabling the engines. The pilot maneuvered the crippled jetliner over New York City and ditched it in the frigid Hudson River, and all 155 on board were pulled to safety as the plane slowly sank. (AP Photo/Trela Media)
US Airways pilot recalled as ‘smart kid’
1/16/2009 8:04 AM
By: Associated Press
All 155 people on Flight 1549 from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., survived after being rescued from the river.
DENISON — The pilot who safely landed a disabled US Airways jet into the Hudson River is a 1969 graduate of Denison High School.
Fellow Texans who know 57-year-old Chesley Sullenberger III said they’re not surprised at his heroism.
Kathy Coulter of Denison also graduated in 1969 and said she went on to teach with Sullenberger’s mother.
Coulter told the Sherman Herald Democrat that she’s not surprised that her classmate would be able to have the skills that it takes to do that.
Denison Mayor Robert Brady remembers the man he knew as “Bernie” as one of the “smart kids” who got his pilot’s license at 14.
All 155 people on Flight 1549 from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., survived after being rescued from the river. Authorities are looking into whether birds were sucked into the engines.
— Sullenberger, who now lives in Danville, Calif., is a former fighter pilot who also runs a safety consulting firm. He’s been with US Airways nearly 30 years.
— Sullenberger’s co-pilot was 49-year-old Jeff Skiles, 49, of Oregon, Wis., a 23-year US Airways veteran.
US Airways pilot recalled as ‘smart kid’
1/16/2009 8:04 AM
By: Associated Press
All 155 people on Flight 1549 from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., survived after being rescued from the river.
DENISON — The pilot who safely landed a disabled US Airways jet into the Hudson River is a 1969 graduate of Denison High School.
Fellow Texans who know 57-year-old Chesley Sullenberger III said they’re not surprised at his heroism.
Kathy Coulter of Denison also graduated in 1969 and said she went on to teach with Sullenberger’s mother.
Coulter told the Sherman Herald Democrat that she’s not surprised that her classmate would be able to have the skills that it takes to do that.
Denison Mayor Robert Brady remembers the man he knew as “Bernie” as one of the “smart kids” who got his pilot’s license at 14.
All 155 people on Flight 1549 from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., survived after being rescued from the river. Authorities are looking into whether birds were sucked into the engines.
— Sullenberger, who now lives in Danville, Calif., is a former fighter pilot who also runs a safety consulting firm. He’s been with US Airways nearly 30 years.
— Sullenberger’s co-pilot was 49-year-old Jeff Skiles, 49, of Oregon, Wis., a 23-year US Airways veteran.
US Airways pilot recalled as ‘smart kid’
1/16/2009 8:04 AM
By: Associated Press
All 155 people on Flight 1549 from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., survived after being rescued from the river.
DENISON — The pilot who safely landed a disabled US Airways jet into the Hudson River is a 1969 graduate of Denison High School.
Fellow Texans who know 57-year-old Chesley Sullenberger III said they’re not surprised at his heroism.
Kathy Coulter of Denison also graduated in 1969 and said she went on to teach with Sullenberger’s mother.
Coulter told the Sherman Herald Democrat that she’s not surprised that her classmate would be able to have the skills that it takes to do that.
Denison Mayor Robert Brady remembers the man he knew as “Bernie” as one of the “smart kids” who got his pilot’s license at 14.
All 155 people on Flight 1549 from New York’s La Guardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., survived after being rescued from the river. Authorities are looking into whether birds were sucked into the engines.
— Sullenberger, who now lives in Danville, Calif., is a former fighter pilot who also runs a safety consulting firm. He’s been with US Airways nearly 30 years.
— Sullenberger’s co-pilot was 49-year-old Jeff Skiles, 49, of Oregon, Wis., a 23-year US Airways veteran.
If you check out the pilots at the airport some of them seem to be very old. There used to be a 60 year age limit. I don’t know what the age limit is now. Some of them look about 80.
I think everybody evacuated in order of their seating out of the aircraft. It was getting into the life boats that women and children went first.
You were a F4 GIB? My father was a driver in Vietnam.
Thank you twice.
(I don’t want to belittle any other occupation by what I’m going to say next, or get into a flame war or “oneupsmanship”, so I hope no one takes offense, and I won’t respond to those who do. Also, he == he/she. )
Every day a commercial or military pilot takes off, he has in his hands many millions of dollars worth of equipment and often hundreds of lives. He knows it every time. Few others ever think of it, outside of his supervisors. A huge amount of training goes into getting him ready for the task to begin with, but in addition, that training NEVER ends. No matter how experienced the pilot may be, he is required to continue that training in emergency simulators, and most pilots very willingly do. And the simulator operators have the most devilish minds of all... no matter how good you are, they can always dream up some more difficult, but still feasible, situation for you to handle. Seldom did I leave a simulator session completely satisfied with myself.
Losing all power on takeoff? Well, I think the third flight I had, my instructor said, “You just lost your engine. What are you going to do? Where are you going to land?” Almost every flight, I could count on that question... now, mind - my instructor was about 60yo, and a WW2 pilot.. so he had been around the block a few times and was an usually excellent instructor. But most instructors will drill their students similarly, and again, that never really ends.
Before every flight, pilots have to figure out speeds and altitudes for go/no-go and other decisions if they lose an engine, and they review them just before running up their engine for takeoff. Good pilots are aware all the time of their emergency landing options, and that is constantly changing with their speed, altitude, terrain and weather. A mildly experienced pilot is very familiar with how far his aircraft will glide, and how much altitude it is going to lose in a no-power turn. Most experienced pilots have experienced some sort of at least relatively major inflight emergency. I had four engine failures myself which strangely enough didn’t seem “major” to me (hey, I still had at least half my engines left!), and several other emergencies, one of which that was far worse than the engine failures.
Only a few of us are ever exposed to these kinds of realities in our occupation where the stakes are so high, and very few really train for those situations he may face, and even fewer keep in mind that today cold be that day. But every time he flies, a pilot knows this can happen, that it will usually happen with no warning at all, and he tries to keep himself well-prepared to handle those “moments of stark raving terror” as well as he is able. Few others can honestly say the same.
And again, thank you.
I need to add... that thanks to the excellent manufacture of most aircraft (and I’m going to single out Boeing now), as well as the tremendous maintenance staff that most planes are able to count on, pilots very seldom have to face these emergencies.
Buff driver?
Nice post.
Here’s about as close a simulation as one might expect, without actually being in the cockpit of flight 1549, done by some students at Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology in Missouri. It’s fairly gripping.
Enjoy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011602252.html
Here’s about as close a simulation as one might expect, without actually being in the cockpit of flight 1549, done by some students at Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology in Missouri. It’s fairly gripping.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011602252.html
But it's worth it...wow.
You’re right... the dang link to the simulation was the lead video in the center of the page when I captured the address. DOH!
Yeah... the sim. get’s you on the edge of your seat.
Amazing how quickly 3 minutes and some change went by, and that’s just the impression/view that I got from the confines of my keyboard command and control center. ;o)
Did the plane go under the George Washington Bridge or over it. Even if it went over the bridge, it is a tall bridge, and the flight did not gain much altitude.
Going under the bridge would have been treading the needle, and maybe impossible to not have the tail hit bridge for as far down the Hudson it was able to go before landing (ditching).
I thought I had seen a comment that someone said the plane went under the George Washington Bridge, which does not sound very credible...
I haven’t seen an under the bridge account anywhere. I had heard plane came within 900 feet or so of bridge, mighty damn close for comfort .
The aircraft flew over the GW ... actually over the east portal, then descended and flared out for the landing on the Hudson. I've crossed the GW (although not recently) at least four hundred times.
The flight track I saw had it at around 1300’ as it went over the bridge. I checked and the bridge is around 700’.
Not to take away from the pilot's risk, but he was well above the GW Bridge, not "threading the needle." Check the fight data; that was one of the first things I checked. He was 750 feet above it, about 1350 ft elevation (it read 1400 as the icon was on the bridge) vs about 600 feet elevation of highest point of the bridge.
He did not threaten all of those people by nearly hitting the bridge; he selected a good place to bring the plane down.
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