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.