US Air a/c crashes in NY.

[damien b]

Amazing job by the flight crew to safely ditch the aircraft into the Hudson and allow everyone to survive. Amazing scenes to be honest.

[Mark Grima]

Pilot has been named:

from smh.com.au

"The pilot has been named as Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III, a former fighter pilot with the US Air Force and 40-year veteran of the aviation industry, according to the web site of his consulting firm, Safety Reliability Methods.

Mr Sullenberger's curriculum vitae states that he has been a pilot with US Airway since 1980. Before that he spent seven years flying F4 fighter jets with the US Air Force.

"It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river, and then making sure everybody got out," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

ABC quoted the mayor as saying Mr Sullenberger "walked the plane twice to verify if anyone was on board" before getting out himself."

And seems to be some confirmation that this is in fact the first succseful ditching of a commercial aviation aircraft.

from the same smh.com.au piece

The president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, Barry Jackson, said he believed this was the first successful ditching of a commercial passenger plane ever.

An online forum for pilots was buzzing in the wake of the incident, with many contributers also speculating that this was the first time a passenger jet had successfully ditched.

"Ditching" is an intentional emergency landing in water. It appears to happen occasionally in the military and with smaller aircraft in general aviation but is understood to be extremely rare for commercial passenger jets.

The whole article is at http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/exf...608938016.html

Cheers

M

[David Ramsay]

Here's a picture of one I took at 'The Farm' near Shellharbour the day before they were removed.

You got a camera on the shotgun now, Nige?

On a more serious note .. the captain's CV can be found here (link courtesy of Mike Scott). Sometimes you just have the right guy in the right place at the right time.

[Nigel C]

Originally Posted by David Ramsay

You got a camera on the shotgun now, Nige?

I figured the gas cannon was a little too cumbersome when trying to get the flying subjects.........

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by Mark Grima

...
And seems to be some confirmation that this is in fact the first succseful ditching of a commercial aviation aircraft.

It depends how you would discribe successful. There have been others, the Ethiopean 767 for example that I personaly would call a success because many got out alive. Probably the first time an a/c hasn't broken up and zero loss of life. Pretty good job would say.

[David Knudsen]

Originally Posted by Ash W

It depends how you would discribe successful. There have been others, the Ethiopean 767 for example that I personaly would call a success because many got out alive. Probably the first time an a/c hasn't broken up and zero loss of life. Pretty good job would say.

I seem to recall from Air Disaster Vol 1 that the ALM/ONA DC-9 that ditched off the coast of St Croix back in 1970 didn't break up during the ditching, but lives were lost. That link doesn't mention the condition of the aircraft, however.

[Ash W]

Originally Posted by David Knudsen

I seem to recall from Air Disaster Vol 1 that the ALM/ONA DC-9 that ditched off the coast of St Croix back in 1970 didn't break up during the ditching, but lives were lost. That link doesn't mention the condition of the aircraft, however.

The Ethiopean one was interesting in that many survived the crash and break-up, but were drowned because they inflated their life jacket inside the a/c which meant they got stuck inside.

Looking at the footage of the US Airways crash it seems as if very few people had a life jacket on (guess not much time with this one).

[James Smith]

Is Nigel taking his work home? No bird stands a chance!

[Dino D]

Is it my imagination or is there a Concorde in the background of this vid http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=lF8q6XcCNSY @1.56 mins?

Cheers,
Dino

P.s. I seem to recall the DC-9 that ditched was intact

[Adam P.]

very few people had a life jacket on

Ahh yes, and out of those who did, guess who didn't listen to the safety demonstration....





Shamelessly pinched off PPRuNe...