It’s already being called the Miracle on the Hudson. Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III landed his Airbus A320 jet in the Hudson River today (above) after it lost power in both engines on hitting a flock of geese soon after taking off from New York’s La Guardia Airport. The landing was so smooth that nobody was seriously injured. The plane floated and all 150 passengers and five crew were able to escape, many on to the wings, where they were quickly rescued by passing boats. Some did not even get their feet wet.
This is a rare successful “ditching” in water of a large passenger plane and is a spectacular example of outstanding airmanship.
It scarcely needs stating how outstanding Captain Sullenberger’s heroism was. He was flying a large passenger jet that lost both engines soon after takeoff. He had nowhere to go but down. All round him were the skyscrapers of New York. Even on the river where he landed, he had to avoid bridges and many boats and ships.
Usually when a large plane comes down in water, disaster follows. One notable previous occasion of an attempt to ditch a jet was in 1996, after an Ethiopian Airlines 767 was hijacked over Kenya and the pilots ordered to fly to Australia. It ran out of fuel over the Indian Ocean and came down just off a beach off the island of Grande Comore. Unfortunately it broke up on impact and 125 of the 175 on board died.
Captain Sullenberger
Captain Sullenberger’s US Airways jet took off from La Guardia for Charlotte, North Carolina at 3.26pm (9.26am New Zealand time today) and reached 3200 feet before he reported a “double bird strike” and lost power in both engines. Big jets glide but he was too low to glide the considerable distance to a runway so he put the plane down in the Hudson by the Upper West Side of Manhattan, landing tail first for a landing so smooth that every pilot of every jet plane everywhere in the world will be examining what he did, lest such a problem happen to them.
“The pilot did a masterful job of landing in the river and making sure everybody got out,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference after the ditching. “I had a long conversation with the pilot, he walked the plane twice and made sure that everybody was out.”
Despite taking on water, the plane remained afloat and drifted seven kilometres down the Hudson before it was tied to a pier.
I’ve flown the Tasman four times since Christmas Day and each time half-smiled when the cabin crew, during the safety demonstration, described how to don life jackets and help get the life rafts out in the event of the plane coming down in the sea. I had honestly not imagined that the jet might be capable of floating.
Well, now we know that an A320 Airbus can float! And it was on such a jet, with Air New Zealand, that two of my transtasman trips were made, so it’s a comforting thought, especially as I was also mindful that the cause of the crash of an Air New Zealand A320 into the Mediterranean last November is still not known (though it should be, very soon now, as the data from the flight recorders is at last being examined).
Update Sunday January 18: In the comments section below, Keri Hulme has taken issue with my (and others’) use of the headline Miracle on the Hudson in the context of the ditching of US Airways Flight 1549. Keri makes a good point about the use of such a phrase but there is a legitimate and completely non-religious reason for its use. I have replied to her in the comments section and this is what I have said:
Can I really protest the “miracle” part of the title of this thread?
There was a famous 1947 film called Miracle on 34th St. The latter street is not far from where the A320 came down, by 48th Street, and it floated past 34th St on its way to South Ferry (near where it is now tied to a pier). Everyone from the NY state governor to all the New York media immediately called the ditching the Miracle on the Hudson in direct reference to the 1947 movie. In fact the governor said: “We’ve had the Miracle on 34th Street and now we’ve had the miracle on the Hudson.”
To respond to what I think your issue is, no religious connotation was involved or intended in either the heading I deliberately chose, or the same headline used by all the New York media, or in the 1947 movie. The latter was a secular fantasy film about a guy who played Santa Claus at Macy’s department store, which is in 34th St.
This was a really experienced, highly trained, ultra skilled pilot *doing his job.*
He did far more than his job. This will go down as one of the most fantastic flying feats in the history of aviation. It will go into all the aviation textbooks and be repeated on flight simulators used for pilot training from now till the end of time.
23 Comments
January 16, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Sorry, it’s not the first such landing; there have been 8 ditchings of commercial aircraft, and in the case of Japan Airlines Flight 2, all survived. (From a quick consult of Wikipedia, which needless to say already has an article on the subject — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549)
January 16, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Look at the photos, not many life jackets visible bar the rescuers.
Pilot deserves a medal.
January 16, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Here are some even more freaky photos.
January 17, 2009 at 2:05 am
Sully is a true hero! Ive created a facebook fanpage, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Captain-Sully-a-true-hero/44910033958
January 17, 2009 at 4:17 am
Text book ditching!
Sadly most water landings don’t turn out as well.
Pilots would rather hit a concrete runway at 100 knots with the gear up than water.
January 17, 2009 at 7:45 am
$10 says Chuck Norris plays Sullenberger in the movie
January 17, 2009 at 8:00 am
Outstanding work from the pilot. Do you remember the video of the ditching of the 737 that got hijacked in Africa and ran out of gas?
That one floated quite well too.
January 17, 2009 at 9:25 am
I’m not surprised that an airliner can float… after all, they are pressurised containers that must be more or less airtight, and also very light, so, provided they are not actually broken in half when they hit the water (like in the great work crash landing this one) then thay should reasonably be expected to be buoyant.
January 17, 2009 at 10:34 am
sometimes i wonder if the news agencies can hear themselves reporting on things like this crash: “So the plane crashed and now it’s not flying anymore, because it crashed, and it’s in the water, and yes, we have now confirmed that the water is wet, okay, and this also means that the plane is wet because it is in the water…”
January 17, 2009 at 7:41 pm
At about the two minute mark you can see US Air Flight 1549 skid into the Hudson. Then, you can see the passengers climb out onto the wings. This video is 10 minutes long. Actual video of Flight 1549 skidding into the Hudson.
January 17, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Do you remember the video of the ditching of the 737 that got hijacked in Africa and ran out of gas?
Er, yes, it is the one I refer to in the article above.
That one floated quite well too.
Er, not really. It came down in shallow water and broke up. 125 of the 175 aboard died, as I wrote above.
January 17, 2009 at 10:22 pm
Can I really protest the “miracle” part of the title of this thread?
This was a really experienced, highly trained, ultra skilled pilot *doing his job.*
He did it, consummately well.
ALL kudos to him.
January 18, 2009 at 11:09 am
Can I really protest the “miracle” part of the title of this thread?
There was a famous 1947 film called Miracle on 34th St. The latter street is not far from where the A320 came down, by 48th Street, and it floated past 34th St on its way to South Ferry (near where it is now tied to a pier). Everyone from the NY state governor to all the New York media immediately called the ditching the Miracle on the Hudson in direct reference to the 1947 movie. In fact the governor said: “We’ve had the Miracle on 34th Street and now we’ve had the miracle on the Hudson.”
To respond to what I think your issue is, no religious connotation was involved or intended in either the heading I deliberately chose, or the same headline used by all the New York media, or in the 1947 movie. The latter was a secular fantasy film about a guy who played Santa Claus at Macy’s department store, which is in 34th St.
This was a really experienced, highly trained, ultra skilled pilot *doing his job.*
He did far more than his job. This will go down as one of the most fantastic flying feats in the history of aviation. It will go into all the aviation textbooks and be repeated on flight simulators used for pilot training from now till the end of time.
January 18, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Sorry Poneke, I cannot agree with you here: a pilot’s job is to bring the aircraft safely to land( or river!) from departure to arrival.
This man did his job – superbly.
Um, “till the end of time”?
I wasnt aware of the movie reference. Thank you for pointing it out.
January 18, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Poneke, I would like to point out landing in a river might be a bit easier than landing in the sea as you have waves to contend with in the ocean that you don’t have to the same extent in a river like the Hudson.
While the pilot did all the work to get the plane down I think it was a miracle that someone of his experince and training was flying the plane, as usually is seems the most experience pilots are flying bigger planes on long haul flights.
But yes Captain Sullenberger did an outstanding job and deserves all the praise in the world even though he might say he was doing his job.
Also big ups to the rest of the flight crew as the also did an excellent job by all accounts.
January 19, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Patrick Smith writes a column called “Ask the Pilot” for Salon, and in his comments this week, he’s mentioned the “miracle” commentary as well. He’s not a big fan of it either..
Full story here: http://tinyurl.com/97uu7l
“… I’m annoyed by the consistent references to “a miracle.” By all accounts the pilots did an exemplary job in a very dangerous situation, and the results were quite fortunate, but they did what they had to do, and what they were trained to do. To hyperdramatize the event is, I think, to cheapen it.
“Miracle” is an especially loaded word, and although not everybody means it literally, the pretense of supernatural intervention is tedious and insulting to those whose job it is to investigate airline accidents, and also to the thousands of victims of prior accidents who weren’t so lucky. Granted, a jetliner crashing into the Hudson River is going to be, and should be, a major story. But some perspective, please. Nobody was killed.”
January 20, 2009 at 3:30 pm
You have to wonder what the captain’s thought processes were when this happened – airport 1? nah too far. Airport 2? nah too easy. I know, the river! That’ll reduce the fire risk.
Seriously, I wonder if the Hudson is one of the alternative landing spots they learn about in training or if it was just inspiration/desperation.
I’d like to add that there would have been a first officer on board assisting the pilot as well, yet s/he has not rated a mention and probably deserves a lot of praise. Of course that person may be glad to not be in the spotlight if they had accidentally knocked the key out of the ignition or hit the kill switch just after the bird attack.
January 20, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I’d like to add that there would have been a first officer on board assisting the pilot as well, yet s/he has not rated a mention and probably deserves a lot of praise.
The first officer was the pilot in command at take-off but when the plane hit the birds, Captain Sullenberger immediately announced “my aircraft” and took over the controls.
The captain, first officer and the three flight attendants have been invited to tomorrow morning’s inauguration as recognition of their heroism.
January 21, 2009 at 10:28 am
Seriously, I wonder if the Hudson is one of the alternative landing spots they learn about in training or if it was just inspiration/desperation.
The TV reports said the pilot also works in risk management. Raises the interesting possibility that he had devoted some spare time to contingency planning.
January 21, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I suspect that the crash landing of an airbus in the Hudson provided some “transformational” images equivalent to the first NASA photos of the earthrise over the moon.
Up until this event the image of an aircraft near Manhattan was the image of the planes flying into the twin towers – piloted by terrorists. An image burned into the minds of people all around the world.
Now there is a new image – a plane surviving a crash, a plane piloted by an American hero, and the “miracle” made complete by the work of surrounding heroes.
I nice kick start to a New President’s reign.
And given the power of symbols and images compared to the limited power of “fix it” economists, the image of the plane and the hero may do more to lift the US economy than the Government’s Stimulus Package.
February 5, 2009 at 11:02 pm
“Miracle on the Hudson”, “good news”, “all 150 passengers and five crew were able to escape” … but what about the poor geese? Have you noticed that we are so speciesist that we don’t even mention the many geese who clearly must have died in this accident, not even as a footnote? And yet the geese, too, had warm blood and beating hearts and a love of life (and flying), and quick minds and ardent desires. But they are not considered, perhaps because they can’t talk or haven’t our “intelligence”, or are small, or have feathers and non-opposable thumbs.
February 9, 2009 at 9:40 am
what about the poor geese? Have you noticed that we are so speciesist that we don’t even mention the many geese who clearly must have died in this accident, not even as a footnote? And yet the geese, too, had warm blood and beating hearts and a love of life (and flying), and quick minds and ardent desires.
Danyl, you might be hiding under another’s name but your style is unmistakable!
July 4, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Forced landing on placid water is better than on concrete runway. The water won’t create sparks. Landing on the chopped Ocean waters, means to disintegrate the plane and passengers bodies.