"Masterful" landing....

[Nowhere]

Hey, at least the ditching will be quite straightforward

[Dr Mordrid]

One of the cross-purposes I mentioned is Detroit Metro Airport's runway 9R-27L, which is almost directly across Middlebelt Rd. from a 650m x 415m wetland/flood basin. Incoming flights from the east (right) pass within 200 meters of it at very low altitudes.

[Brian Ellis]

Hey, at least the ditching will be quite straightforward

Unfortunately, runway 04 is rarely used, as the prevailing winds are more from the SW. On many tens of takeoffs and landings I've experienced, I think runway 22 was used on all but one occasion. We are more likely to get our feet wet just before landing if the ILS misjudges our approach

[Brian Ellis]

[QUOTE=Dr Mordrid;664442]One of the cross-purposes I mentioned is Detroit Metro Airport's runway 9R-27L, which is almost directly across Middlebelt Rd. from a 650m x 415m wetland/flood basin. Incoming flights from the east (right) pass within 200 meters of it at very low altitudes.

That looks like it's a drainage basin for the airfield itself: note the water intake on bottom left corner.

[MultimediaMan]

Correct: this then becomes "Federally protected wetlands". If you pee in a depression with the right kind of Covenant, you've created "wetlands"...sometimes quite literally.

[Dr Mordrid]

Exactly; drainage it is that doubles as a wetland. Note all the vegetation covering most of the west half. Catch a pic at the right time of day, to be determined by the frickin' birds, and there's hundreds/thousands of waterfowl on that thing or browsing the surrounding fields...some of which are directly under the flight path.

2 km north of it is runway 9L-27R, whose east end is surrounded by 3 slightly smaller ponds that house less vegetation/birds.

This is the same airport that claims it has no deer within the fence, so therefore no danger of deer on the runway, but drive by the sound abatement berms on the south end early some morning and you'll see herds of them at the edge of the woods. There's a 12+ foot fence the airport managers say keeps 'em out, but no one bothered to tell the deer that.

Northern whitetail deer (120-500 lbs) can jump a fence like that with their eyes shut

[RedRed]

http://www.newsday.com/news/printedi...,7833423.story

Intrestingly its one of the few planes that are designed to stay afloat upon ditching.... Provided they dont break up.

[cjolley]

It seemed unbelievable that there was no video.
So here it finally surfaces on CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/17/usair.splash.video/index.html

Looks about as good a set of circumstances as anyone is ever going to see for anything.
Calm winds, no waves, nothing in the way, and ferries, which are about as maneuverable as you are going to get, right there at the ready.

[Nowhere]

Hm, touchdown seemed a little rough/might have been more gentle? (not much of difference/great job anyway - plane largery intact, everybody survived) - perhaps he was overly carefull not to stall?

And...where are the videos from inside?! (c'mon, who here, while sitting by the window in "brace yourself" position, wouldn't also hold digicam or cellphone in a way that would maximize chances of capturing something? )


edits - remember kids, don't drink and post...

[VJ]

According to the flight instructors in the club, the approach would be to stall the plane just above the water (minimize the forward speed). Bear in mind that stalling occurs when flying at too low a speed for the angle of attack for the wings, so the nose doesn't have to be lifted too high (there is also a concept of high-speed stall, where the problem is not the speed, but that is whole different ballgame). To pull it off, it calls for a very delicate balancing between angle of attack (and flaps and slats) and air speed: pull the nose up too high and that the impact might be too hard, put the nose too low and it might nosedive.

I was suprised to read that both engines dropped off in the landing. This was a feature that wasn't present before (engines where mounted in such a way that they'd drop off when they vibrated too much: better to loose an engine than a wing, but that was it). When ditching, it is a very interesting feature to have, as the engines would swoop in a lot of water and slow the plane down too fast. Also, Airbus apparently have a ditch-button, which closes all the vents and intakes to maximise the plane's floating ability. Guess lessons have been learned from previous ditches.


Jörg

[MultimediaMan]

No question: I imagine the NTSB and quite a few Pilots are looking at "Sully's Opus" right now and running it through the simulator.

This one is going to go into the textbooks under "How to Ditch an Airliner in 4 minutes, and Live."

[Dr Mordrid]

Sully's Opus - I like that

Any bets it's going to appear not only in pilot training world-wide but in a lot of PC simulators?

Just for the record; only one engine fell off.

The other is still attached, but its white cowling had been stripped off by the impact leaving only the dark colored engine and mount behind. In the murky waters of the Hudson they might as well have been invisible.

The engine that did fall off has been located by sonar, but it's buried in the silt at the bottom.

[VJ]

Ha, sorry, didn't know one engine stayed on...

But the evacuation went also quite fast... And this is not a simulated evacuation...
(now just imagine being the captain of that first ferry.... )


Jörg

[Dr Mordrid]

THAT guy is "Hero #2". Have any idea what it takes to station-keep a boat & plane drifting in that kind of current, all the while trying to transfer people?

No beginners involved in that operation on either side.