Pilot Action May Have Led to Crash

The Wall Strett Journal ^ | FEBRUARY 18, 2009 | J. LYNN LUNSFORD and ANDY PASZTOR

[GBA]

More information at WSJ.

[Guenevere]

My appreciation for the competence, skills, courage, dedication & experience of Captain Sullenberger continues to grow.

The scary part is there are not enough like him around...
...the lives of ALL these people were at the hands of less experienced pilots.

[Huck]

I never liked flying, but at this point I’m about ready to give it up. I have simply lost faith in my fellow countrymen to do anything right. The Sullenbergers of the world are too few and far between. Perhaps a dwindling breed altogether. I simply don’t trust anyone else with my life. De-evolution is in full swing.

[jwparkerjr]

Yo have to wonder why in the world the pilot would pull back on the stick if he realized his airspeed had gotten too low. It's just absolutely second nature for an experienced pilot to drop the nose to gain airspeed. What is it, the second lesson when a student pilot learns attitude controls airspeed (the nose of the plane, not the pilot's attitude), throttle controls altitude? Seems me there's got to be something we don't know yet.

It's interesting, but possible misleading, when they disclose all these details piece by piece. I understand why they do it, but it makes it so easy to misinterpret what's being released. So much of the early info tends to point to pilot error and by the time the final report comes out two years later it's reported on page 8a and no one ever gets the story that it wasn't necessarily pilot error after all.

[Hacklehead]

Pilot goes out of his way to override the automatic stall avert system. Oops. Welcome to Earth.

[silverleaf]

this makes it sound like the pilot had personal problems and a big life insurance policy ...

[ml/nj]

The plane whipped to the left and then entered a steep right turn, losing 800 feet of altitude in less than five seconds.

A grand piano, if dropped from sufficient altitude, would fall only 400 feet in (a full) five seconds.

ML/NJ

[starlifter]

But a piano doesn't have motors..

[Da Coyote]

“...Seems me there’s got to be something we don’t know yet...”

Agree. As an old flight test type, something in this description does not compute. Since virtually everything I’ve ever experienced has been badly explained by “reporters”, methinks we should let the investigating group do their thing. I’ve been on accident investigation teams, and they’re good. Very good.

[ml/nj]

Yo have to wonder why in the world the pilot would pull back on the stick if he realized his airspeed had gotten too low. It's just absolutely second nature for an experienced pilot to drop the nose to gain airspeed.

If he was flying the plane. But then he wouldn't allow the airspeed to drop anywhere close to stall either.

ML/NJ

[WayneS]

Most grand pianos don’t have jet engines strapped to them

[Guenevere]

Was he flying the plane....?

Or was it the 24 yr old woman?....just asking

[BraveMan]

NASA Tailplane Icing video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2238323060735779946&hl=en

[WayneS]

Well, it appears she had more stick time in that particular aircraft than he did. At least, according to the story.

[mosaicwolf]

As a Commercial pilot myself I fully agree with your assessment jwparkerjr. I think airspeed/attitude was demonstrated in my first lesson not the second. Guess I had a good instructor back in 1974.

[6SJ7]

Stalling? Add power, drop the nose, add power, drop the nose.

How in hell could someone get a commercial pilot license and not be trained to the point of instinct to react properly to a stall condition?

[NavyCanDo]

“appears she had more stick time in that particular aircraft than he did.”

She was also a pilot instructor.

[ArrogantBustard]

Since virtually everything I’ve ever experienced has been badly explained by “reporters”

You too, eh?

[pfflier]

Thank you for that. I just read the 800ft in the story and did my rudimentary physics (1/2 G*T^2) and got 402.5 feet @ 5 seconds.

The aircraft was flown down at 2Gs for those 800 feet.

[CASchack]

I stopped flying the turboprops years ago. I don’t like the way they get tossed around in turbulence, and it seems that the less experienced pilots are flying them for the carriers.