Duh...
Posted on 02/24/2009 12:52:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
The air traffic controller who handled US Airways Flight 1549 said he thought he was hearing a death sentence when the pilot said he was ditching in New York's Hudson River.
Meet some of the survivors of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 that made an emergency landing in the frigid waters of the Hudson River after a flock of birds took...
Controller Patrick Harten said, "I believed at that moment I was going to be the last person to talk to anyone on that plane alive."
The 10-year veteran controller publicly described his reactions to last month's miracle landing in the Hudson for the first time Tuesday before the House aviation subcommittee.
Harten said: "People don't survive landings on the Hudson River. I thought it was his own death sentence."
Making lightning-quick decisions, Harten -- a controller at the New York radar facility that handles aircraft within 40 miles of three major airports -- first tried to return the airliner to LaGuardia Airport, and then sought to send the plane to Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.
But pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger told Harten he was unable to make either airport. He wound up gliding the plane into the river rather than chance a catastrophic crash in a populated area.
Lawmakers want to know what lessons can be learned regarding procedures and training for emergency landings, and how to reduce the potential for collisions between birds and aircraft.
This story has the longest legs I’ve ever seen!
That’s why Sully was the pilot and the air traffic controller isn’t.
1) Sometimes the person who is actually on the scene has better judgment than the guy sitting at a computer screen in a dark room far, far away.
Duh...
We could use Sully in the Oval Office at this time too.
The current pilot of the US Eagle is hellbent on crashing it
into disaster. An expert pilot is much preferred vs. the DoDo bird in chief.
“Sometimes the person who is actually on the scene has better judgment than the guy sitting at a computer screen in a dark room far, far away. “
You so friggin nailed it.
but not the most legs that would be octomom 28 and counting
A unqualified Air Traffic controller and his useless opinion.
Whats your Deal ?
That was uncalled for.
There is no reason to call this guy “unqualified” just because he feared the worst. He simply spoke the truth.
Capt. Sullenberger had spent his career preparing for such a scenario. A pilot with fewer credentials and less experience might well — despite best efforts — have been unable to save the plane and passengers.
Don’t smear the controller for saying what we all were thinking.
He’s probably fine as a controller - but not as a pilot. And I think it is “his opinion” as it is so rare to have a water landing without a bunch of fatalities. (IIRC - this was the first one ever??)
It’s not so much “news” as just another witness story. And I don’t think the controller was “dissing” Sully’s choice.
I think the thing that helped a LOT was that Sully is a glider pilot as well.
Clearly Sully made the right call, even if there had been injuries or deaths. The land between the Hudson and Teterboro is heavily populated and he wouldn't have made it that far.
Captain Obvious strikes again! But the libs don't get it.
Hey you have been here a long time you just post and run did you just want to get a bite or what ?
Well if Sully tried to put it down anywhere else besides the river the controller would have been the last to talk to anyone on that plane.Sully picked it right.
Not the first one ever! This is a pretty amazing story in its own right:
Long before Hudson miracle, there was Capt. Richard Ogg'As Marilyn Ogg watched news coverage last month of pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's successful ditching of a commercial airliner in the Hudson River, a passenger praised Sullenberger for being the first to ever pull off such a maneuver.
"I thought, That's not correct,'" Ogg said. "I almost e-mailed."
She would know. More than 50 years ago, her father saved all 31 passengers aboard Pan Am Flight 943 when he ditched a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser in the Pacific Ocean.
Capt. Richard Ogg was midway through a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco on Oct. 16, 1956, when, in the wee hours of the morning, the No. 1 engine began to sputter. Shortly after, the No. 4 engine failed, leaving the plane with just two.
The Stratocruiser was losing altitude. It wouldn't make it to San Francisco or back to Honolulu. Ogg had to ditch.
About 3:30 a.m. Pacific time Oct. 16, as the plane passed over the empty heart of the Pacific Ocean, Capt. Ogg, 42, a pilot for 15 years at Pan Am, turned on the plane's PA system.
"Sorry to wake you up," he told his passengers. "We have developed engine trouble and may have to ditch."'
(continued in detail at the link)
There is a Coast Guard film of it at the link.
Actually,I think I worked with this controller’s father.
I guess he didn’t know that the flight had one of the best
pilots in the country in the left seat?
It’s not the first one ever...in addition to the one that CD linked, a Japan Air Lines DC-8 hit the water short of the airport in San Francisco, and not only did everyone get out of that alive, the airplane was refurbished and flew another 25 years! But, that was an accident, not an intentional ditch. And it was also the only time that a jet with wing-mounted engines was water-landed without fatalities.
What Captain Sullenberger and his first officer did was even more remarkable, though. They had no engine power, limited hydraulic controls, limited instrumentation, and less than three minutes to prepare and execute the ditching once they realized they couldn’t return to Laguardia or proceed to Teterboro. They had to take a 70-ton flying brick, line it up to avoid boats and buildings, then set it down into the river gently enough to avoid breaking it apart.
I don’t blame the controller for thinking what he did. Modern jet aircraft simply do not ditch. For most people in aviation, “water landing” and “jetliner” brings back images from the horrible video of an Ethiopian 767 that tried to ditch off the Comoros (out of fuel after being hijacked) and ended up digging a wing and engine into the water, cartwheeling, and breaking apart, killing about two-thirds of those onboard.
}:-)4
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