Thoughts on the Hudson Landing

[kevin_standlee]

As it happens, the first I heard of the airplane that had to do a forced landing in the Hudson River was walking around Oakland airport yesterday afternoon. CNN was playing on the TV in the one bar on Terminal 1 as I walked by. Oddly enough, I didn't even think about it during the routine pre-flight safety announcements. On the other hand, I always try to pay attention to the safety briefing, even though I've heard it so many times that I could do it myself. My hope is that if something like the Hudson incident happens to me, I'll react automatically without having to think about it.

Oh, and unless you want an earful, don't call what happened yesterday a "crash" anywhere Lisa can hear you. She'll give you a large earful about how a "crash" implies that the crew did not have control of the plane, whereas "forced landing" or "ditching" means that they did. It's clear from the heroic handling of a plane in a critical failure situation, the pilot had that plane under remarkably good control.

Comments

[nojay.livejournal.com]

It wasn't a miracle either. Training, engineering and some good fortune (having a big river to ditch into, not hitting any boats or other obstacles, having enough altitude to position the plane properly and retain enough airspeed to keep control etc.) saved the day.

Reading the news about this incident I discovered the existence of the "ditch switch". One control -- hit it and all the underside ports and vents on the fuselage close watertight, saving the crew thirty seconds of pounding their way through a complicated "preparations for landing on water" checklist that they've practiced but are not intimately familiar with. Brilliant idea. Expect to see it in all new aircraft cockpits (plus a lot of retrofits) from now on.

[amysisson.livejournal.com]

I always thought "ditching" a plane meant the pilot ejected. Guess I was wrong!

[howeird]

I call it a water landing. As you say, very skillfully done, but with a huge chunk of good luck - the Hudson can be a very busy river, lots of barges, and river traffic was probably light due to the frigid weather. Another chunk of luck is it does not appear anyone panicked - at least not enough to endanger or "infect" others. But big gold stars all around to the crew for doing the right things, quickly.

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the pilot "just did his job". Which is more than you can count on, in that kind of extremity. AND was lucky. AND the rest of the cockpit and cabin crew did their jobs. AND nobody went off the deep end (especially back in the cabin). AND the boats got their quick. Falling below near-perfect in any of those areas would have made things much much worse.

[garyomaha.livejournal.com]

Not to intentionally enrage Lisa, but my former-Air-Force friends say call all landings "controlled crashes."

[redneckotaku.livejournal.com]

It did take a little luck, a lot of skill and a touch of miracle to have nobody die during the crash landing of that plane.