The Hero of Flight 1549 (Pilot is Air Force Vet!)

The Smoking Gun ^ | 1-15-09 | The Smoking Gun

[3niner]

The "ditching switch" certainly sounds like it was a good idea.

Since you know something about this plane, perhaps you could answer a question. Eyewitnesses described the approach to the river, with gear extended. I would have thought that a water landing would work better with gear up. Do you know anything about this?

[abner]

I’m glad I’m not the only one that knows he didn’t crash.

[Cementjungle]

Since you know something about this plane, perhaps you could answer a question. Eyewitnesses described the approach to the river, with gear extended. I would have thought that a water landing would work better with gear up. Do you know anything about this?

I wondered about that too. Maybe the added drag is really a help and not a bad thing...

[IrishPennant]

Incredible feat by the pilot....brings up a new phrase, tho...

Any landing you can walk away on to the wings is a good landing!!!!

[abner]

In my thing that we do, hot air ballooning, any landing you walk away from is a good one.

I will always be amazed by the photos of those people looking like they are walking on water.

Whatever happened, the pilot is a hero. A real hero, not one of the fake ones that are so common lately.

Kudos to ‘Sully’.

[dalereed]

“I knew this pilot had to be a military vet and I was right, but damn a F-4 Driver on top of it all!”

My nephew is a former Navy F-4 pilot that has been flying for Delta for the last 19 years.

At that time almost all of the pilots going into the commercials were from the military.

[IrishPennant]

A hero, without question. I have never experienced a Hot Air Balloon trip (And not sure I would - big former Marine Chicken here...have a great friend who is a sky diver instructor - try as he might, uh uh, ain;t happening here) but I travel and fly a great deal for work...many, many plane rides domestic and international...also many, many trips by car....I feel safer in a plane then I do on the Interstate Highways...more unknown factors on the road then in the air!!!

[Stonewall Jackson]

Do you know if there is any video of the actual landing? They mentioned on Fox that the plane came down near a park and are asking anyone with video or pictures of the landing to send them to their website, but they haven't received any yet.

[mnehring]

I’ll email some folks I know who where nearby and see if anyone heard of anything re videos. Seems there should be many camera phone videos in the least.

[freepersup]

If I may be so bold to answer your question...

After reading perhaps a dozen accounts/reports of the event in the mass media today; one article did mention that the gears were brought up, or someone being interviewed (as a subject matter expert) iterated a checklist of things that would have to be done to near perfection for the landing to have happened the way it did; nose high, gears up, wings level, full flaps and slats, ditch switch engaged, speed maintained (controlled flight) to impact, etc.

When all hell breaks loose, the mantra is fly the plane, fly the plane, fly the plane, and fly the plane this steely pilot and his second, surely, did, do.

[Yaelle]

So experience matters after all!

G-d bless you and keep you, Sir, for a long and healthy life!

[444Flyer]

It would seem impossible that there isn't at least one tape of it. I haven't seen or heard anything.

[eyedigress]

I understand it was gears up, nose up, gliding over the GW with a 900ft clearance and a couple of skips.

[freepersup]

Roger on the details. I'm jazzed thinking about the cockpit activity... both pilots running an instinctual and extremely abbreviated checklist for landing, just as they would in an emergency on a hard surface, with the exception of the gears down. As a previous poster remarked; they ‘flew’ this plane into the water, and that is what made all the difference. Great news today! Really, great, news.

IMHO, making the decision to put the a/c down onto the water while flight control was available, instead of trying for the alternative airport and possibly losing flight authority prior to touchdown, or worse yet, landing short, consequently crashing into urban terrain, cannot be repeated or praised often enough.

[eyedigress]

God was their Co-pilot. That Urban situation with ONE chance out of it. If this had happened from any other way from take-off it would have been catastrophic. Looks like Satan got foiled again.

[freepersup]

AMEN!

[freepersup]

US Airways plane crashes 'flies' (there, fixed it) into Hudson River

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)

Looks like the gears are up. This view shows the engines sitting low, in comparison to the fuselage (belly) which had to really 'bite' into the water on impact.

[eyedigress]

That is amazing. Is that a still photo or taken from a video? Glider training OTJ with an A320! Unbelievable. His instincts kicked in and Jesus gave him a river! The bridge avoidance is miraculous. Oh My!

[MaxMax]

I'm waiting for Kerry to come forward and (lie) say that This HERO
covered him on his boat trip into Cambodia.

RATs are prone to every lie possible.

[bethybabes69]

Oh, only about 99.5% of commercial rated pilots.

It's a welcome thought that they would.

Rightfully so, the BBC here in Britain are holding the pilot and his crew in the highest esteem.

American hero, right there.