US Airways Flight 1549

The U.S. Airways Flight 1549 ended January 15, 2009 a few minutes after takeoff due to problems with the engines after a bird strike on the Hudson River with a ditching. All 150 passengers and five crew members survived the accident.

Flight 1549 is a daily scheduled domestic flight of U.S. Airways from LaGuardia Airport in New York City to Seattle / Tacoma Airport Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, United States with a stopover at the airport Charlotte in Charlotte, North Carolina. 15 January 2009 at 15:32 local time clock ( clock 20:32 UTC ) of the first flight segment ended six minutes after takeoff with a ditching in the Hudson River between New York and Weehawken, New Jersey.

Although the fuselage and wings remained intact, roughly, the aircraft had to be written off as a total loss.

History of the flight

Flight 1549 lifted on January 15, 15:26 local time clock from the runway 04 of LaGuardia Airport. There were 150 passengers and five crew members aboard the plane. The pilot was Chesley Sullenberger Burnett, a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, who flew 1973-1980 F- 4 Phantom in the U.S. Air Force and then transport aircraft at U.S. Airways. The first officer on board was Jeffrey B. Skiles. The aircraft was on his way to his stopover at the Charlotte / Douglas International Airport.

Flight AWE 1549 was in climb and had a height of about 975 meters (3200 feet) reaches over the Bronx, as the pilot of the air traffic control " bird strike and loss of thrust in both engines " and intend to return to LaGuardia Airport reported. On the supply air traffic control, to attempt a landing on runway 13, the pilot, however, reported that it was not capable of doing and "possibly in the Hudson border " will. The pilot asked after an emergency landing at the airport the in view Teterboro in Bergen County, New Jersey, to which was reported by the air traffic control there soon as available. When the air traffic control told him the change of course for runway 1 at Teterboro, he answered at first only clearly evident " we do not make it ," adding to the question of the desired runway " we'll be in the Hudson ". The air traffic control then asked to repeat what was done no more. After that there has been no more radio contact between flight control and flight 1549. Maintain an up same channel another aircraft will now display another intermediary: " I think he said he would go into the Hudson River ." The pilot had decided because of insufficient altitude to an emergency landing on the Hudson River.

About six minutes after takeoff, the aircraft continued in a southerly direction along the Hudson River approximately between 48th Street in Manhattan and Port Imperial in Weehawken, New Jersey. This ditching represents an incredible feat of the pilot, since usually tear off the engines hanging under the wings when immersed in water asymmetrical and so the enormous unbalanced resistance, the aircraft pulls out of the web, this is why most breaks. In this case, although ripped unbalanced one engine off, but the pilot still managed to keep the engine on track and avoid a breakup. The location of the ditching is less than 1.6 miles from Times Square; three ferry terminals are located at a distance of less than one kilometer. Before ditching the aircraft flew over the George Washington Bridge, according to the radar data with less than 275 m (900 ft) height distance.

The ditching on the river was recorded by two fixed building surveillance cameras, and partly by a camera of the U.S. Coast Guard.

After the machine thanks to the feat of the pilots successfully notwasserte, also the cabin crew behaved absolutely exemplary and immediately initiated an evacuation of all necessary facilities for the passengers. A panic could be successfully avoided. All passengers and crew members left the plane through both the front outputs in serving as liferaft emergency chutes and through the emergency doors that led them directly to the wings of the very slow sinking airplane. The captain got off the plane last, after he had twice convinced through a complete inspection of the entire aircraft assumes that all passengers and crew had left the plane (→ The captain is the last to board).

In the history of aviation, this was only the fourth ditching a jet plane without the loss of human life and only the second of an aircraft with attached under the wings jet engines (the first was a DC-8 with smaller engines, and there were four of them ).

Aircraft

The Airbus the aircraft identifier N106US was put into service in 1999 and was equipped with two CFM International engines of the type CFM56- 5B4 / P, one of which was demolished during the landing on the river. Previously it was reported that both engines were torn off.

The Airbus drove after ditching on the Hudson and was eventually towed to save the passengers on a pier near the World Financial Center, about six kilometers from the site of ditching. He was there moored to prevent that he is driven out of the flow of the Atlantic Ocean, and finally landed on 18 January 2009.

The Airbus A320 has a switch to prepare for ditching, by which all valves in the lower part of the fuselage can be closed in order to improve the buoyancy of the aircraft. This ditch mode was not activated before ditching because the switch for activating the system is mentioned only at the end of the emergency manual. The action sequences for a ditch are provided in the emergency manual for altitudes to 10,000 feet, and so the crew of Flight 1549 was simply no time to activate the Ditching mode.

Rescue

Immediately after the observed ditching the aircraft changed virtually all the Hudson ships sailing course and ran at full speed to the rescue. Less than four minutes after the ditching took the first ferry from the nearby ferry terminal one, more followed immediately and also a tug arrived and took the first passengers of the aircraft on board. Shortly thereafter, the fireboat John D. McKean of the FDNY as well as boats and helicopters of the Coast Guard and New York Police Department arrived on the scene and rescued the passengers from the water and from the wings, on which they had partially gone. Others had taken refuge on the inflated emergency chutes. There was here, however, the problem is that the side walls of the ferries were about two feet high, so that the passengers they could not climb. However, this problem solved the crews very quickly by the ejection of rope ladders and nets. Even the crews threw precaution life jackets and rings into the water so that could potentially save slid down from the wing people, but this happened to anyone.

All passengers and crew were rescued thanks to the absolutely exemplary operating cabin crew, about half of them suffered minor injuries or had to because of hypothermia ( the water temperature of the Hudson was only 5 ° C ) are treated in hospitals; total of 78 persons were registered as injured.

The New York Fire Department was with 35 ambulances in use, more ambulances were asked by various other organizations are available on the New Jersey side of the river.

Most of the injured were admitted to Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in Greenwich Village and the St. Luke's - Roosevelt Hospital Center. Later it was announced that a deep cut in the leg of a flight attendant was obviously the most severe injury.

Both George W. Bush and Barack Obama congratulated the pilot Chesley Sullenberger phone on his stellar performance. Barack Obama invited him, his family and the crew of Flight 1549 to his swearing-in as president.

Salvage the machine

The machine was recovered three days after the accident. It had damage to the right engine, the left was demolished. The underside of the hull was badly damaged. The flight data recorder has been evaluated and confirmed the failure of two engines. The left engine was salvaged on 23 January 2009 by divers.

According to the investigation by the NTSB of the hull and after recovery for transporting severed wings and tail of the insurance Chartis Insurance has been sent. Until March 27, 2010 bids were submitted, which greatly damaged parts were sold to the highest bidder.

The aircraft was taken to the Aviation Museum from Charlotte ( North Carolina) on 10 June 2011. For transport, the wings and tail were removed. The museum is now again completed machine set up as a permanent exhibit (35 ° 13 ' 12 " N, 80 ° 55' 50 " W35.22 - 80.930555555556 ).

Investigation of the cause

The National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ) and Airbus experts had sent to New York City to determine the cause of the aircraft accident.

The NTSB confirmed that bird remains were found in both engines. Through DNA analysis, the found bird remains Canada geese could be assigned. The typical weight of this species is considerably higher than the limits for which the engines are designed.