Am I the only person that finds it odd that of all the god knows how many things pilots are trained to do, it's not part of the test to get a plane licence to ditch the thing in water, bearing in mind it's often done for military screwups?

Woah good pilot skills!

Lets remember that it takes more than one guy to fly a plane though, the co-pilot and the cabin crew should get an award too. Lady luck was deffinatley on their side today.

Im really surprised that we didn't see no fatalities, the thing about modern aircraft is that, the engines are on the wings, so as you come to land the angle has to be near perfect as not to cause the engines to scoop the water and flip the plane.

How far away is the hudson river from the airport?

At 3500ft a plane of that size can glide for about 6miles, you loose around 1000ft every 2miles.

Looks like he made a very wise decision to not risk it and ditch it into the water.

Quote from D.Zanetti :

Im really surprised that we didn't see no fatalities, the thing about modern aircraft is that, the engines are on the wings, so as you come to land the angle has to be near perfect as not to cause the engines to scoop the water and flip the plane.

Quote from D.Zanetti :

How far away is the hudson river from the airport?

At 3500ft a plane of that size can glide for about 6miles, you loose around 1000ft every 2miles.

Looks like he made a very wise decision to not risk it and ditch it into the water.

Well done to the crew and to the pliot.

I see they have been awarded the key to New York. Does it actulay open up all the doors in new york? Or does it open up anything in new york?

Quote from duke_toaster :

Am I the only person that finds it odd that of all the god knows how many things pilots are trained to do, it's not part of the test to get a plane licence to ditch the thing in water, bearing in mind it's often done for military screwups?

It's not? I just read a Norwegian pilot say they do simulated ocean landings with every type of plane they're licensed to fly. Seems reasonable to me.

Quote from 1993weeman :

Well done to the crew and to the pliot.

I see they have been awarded the key to New York. Does it actulay open up all the doors in new york? Or does it open up anything in new york?

I don't think so...

Quote from wien :

It's not? I just read a Norwegian pilot say they do simulated ocean landings with every type of plane they're licensed to fly. Seems reasonable to me.

^ Yes I'm sure thats right.

There's no way they can license a pilot without doing water landings.

Quote from duke_toaster :

Am I the only person that finds it odd that of all the god knows how many things pilots are trained to do, it's not part of the test to get a plane licence to ditch the thing in water, bearing in mind it's often done for military screwups?

Ditching an aircraft this size or greater into water is not a commonly chosen option, normally an emergency landing made at an airfield, even if not onto a runway or paved area is the most desirable option because it gives a large, flat and relatively obstacle free area with immediate specialised emergency response (as was originally chosen in this case). Landing on water is no different to trying to belly land an aircraft on ground, maintain speed, choose the safest direction in which to point the plane (in this case the other airfield), keep the descent speed much higher than standard, you have no power to correct and a stall in this situation will be fatal. Then the critical things, firstly you have to quickly accept the spot the plane is going to land on, whatever is in your path when you land will be softer than a stall. Secondly the wings must be level, if they're not the wings will drag on whatever you land on, which in water will result in a roll if not destruction of the fuselage. The actual landing is going to be identical to any other in a conventional plane, just get the hold off to last as long as possible for the gentlest touch down, in water the actual speed entering it will be much less important than keeping nose up, wings level and a gentle descent.

Quite how would you suggest training water ditches any differently than is currently done? The drills and approach will be identical to engine failures over ground (which a huge amount of training time is spent on). The actual landing is pretty academic, anybody who has managed to get a pilots license will be more than technically capable of doing the landing, in many ways using a wide straight river is much less technical than a standard landing, it is really a matter of staying cool not panicking and doing exactly the same as they have done time and time again just without an instructor by their side telling them it is time to pull out of the approach.

Quote from danthebangerboy :

Very thankfull to hear everybody is ok, especially as my parents are flying tonight, take off was at 9pm (uk) needless to say i heard the words plane crash on the news just now and shat myself. They were travelling UK to portugal so nowhere near it but as they are in the air right now i only heard the words plane crash.

So, geese caused this??

You would think that they would be able to fit some kind of mesh, yeah, square mesh with say 4 or even 6 inch holes in it to keep things like birds out of the jets wouldn't you.

after I heard this I thought about abandoning my plans to go back to London in Easter, but I'm very relieved to hear everyone's ok, and no one got injured when coming out (you know, some people are so shaken that they lose balance and fall). When I'm about to fly, I always think about the dangers or unexpected errors of the aircraft/flight like a bird strike or cabin pressure failure and it really scares me nearly dead.

btw, depending on which part of Portugal your parents flew, The Portuguese Islands (Madeira and Azores) and the country itself, I think there's a chance that they might complain about the landing

Quote from ajp71 :

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+1. And I'm 100% sure that landing a plane with no engines is a hell of alot easier than landing a plane on water even with engines.

man that pilot has some ballz i mean he was told to land at next closest airport, but he knew they wont make it so he went fo a river knowing everyones life is in his hands. big kudos to him, good stuff.