The incident quickly became known as "the Miracle on the Hudson"[3][4][5] and a National Transportation Safety Board official described it as "the most successful ditching in aviation history".[6] Flight simulations showed that the airplane could have returned to LaGuardia, had it turned toward the airport immediately after the bird strike.[7] However, the Board found that scenario did not account for real-world considerations, and affirmed the ditching as providing the highest probability of survival, given the circumstances.[8]: 89
The pilots and flight attendants were awarded the Master's Medal of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in recognition of their "heroic and unique aviation achievement".[9]
The flight was cleared for takeoff to the northeast from LaGuardia's Runway 4 at 3:24:56 pm Eastern Standard Time (20:24:56 UTC). With Skiles in control, the crew made its first report after becoming airborne at 3:25:51 as being at 700 feet (210 m) and climbing.[22]
The weather at 2:51 p.m. was 10 miles (16 km) visibility with broken clouds at 3,700 feet (1,100 m), wind 8 knots (9.2 mph; 15 km/h) from 290°; an hour later it was few clouds at 4,200 feet (1,300 m), wind 9 knots (10 mph; 17 km/h) from 310°.[8]: 24 At 3:26:37, Sullenberger remarked to Skiles, "What a view of the Hudson today."[23]
The Hudson River from above the Bronx, with Manhattan in the diagonal center and New Jersey in the distance. The George Washington Bridge is at right, Central Park Reservoir at upper left, and Teterboro Airport at the right center within the elbow of the Overpeck Creek.Flight path flown (red). Alternative trajectories to Teterboro (dark blue) and back toward La Guardia (magenta) were simulated for the investigation.
At 3:27:11, during climbout, the plane struck a flock of Canada geese at an altitude of 2,818 feet (859 m) about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north-northwest of LaGuardia. The pilots' view was filled with the large birds;[24][25] passengers and crew heard very loud bangs and saw flames from the engines, followed by silence and an odor of fuel.[26][27][28]
Realizing that both engines had shut down, Sullenberger took control while Skiles worked the checklist for engine restart.[c][8] The aircraft slowed but continued to climb for a further 19 seconds, reaching about 3,060 feet (930 m) at an airspeed of about 185 knots (213 mph; 343 km/h), then began a glide descent, accelerating to 210 knots (240 mph; 390 km/h) at 3:28:10 as it descended through 1,650 feet (500 m).[citation needed]
Sullenberger asked controllers for landing options in New Jersey, mentioning Teterboro Airport.[31][33][34] Permission was given for Teterboro's Runway 1,[34] Sullenberger initially responded "Yes", but then: "We can't do it ... We're gonna be in the Hudson".[33] The aircraft passed less than 900 feet (270 m) above the George Washington Bridge. Sullenberger commanded over the cabin address system to "brace for impact"[35] and the flight attendants relayed the command to passengers.[36] Meanwhile, air traffic controllers asked the Coast Guard to caution vessels in the Hudson and ask them to prepare to help with the rescue.[37]
Ditching and evacuation
Coast Guard video of the water landing, and rescue
Sullenberger opened the cockpit door and gave the order to evacuate. The crew began evacuating the passengers through the four overwing window exits and into an inflatable slide/raft deployed from the front right passenger door (the front left slide failed to operate, so the manual inflation handle was pulled). The evacuation was made more difficult by the fact that someone opened the rear left door, allowing more water to enter the plane; whether this was a flight attendant[40] or a passenger is disputed.[8]: 41 [41][42][43] Water was also entering through a hole in the fuselage and through cargo doors that had come open,[44] so as the water rose the attendant urged passengers to move forward by climbing over seats.[d] One passenger was in a wheelchair.[46][47] Finally, Sullenberger walked the cabin twice to confirm it was empty.[48][49][50]
The air and water temperatures were about 19 °F (−7 °C) and 41 °F (5 °C), respectively.[8]: 24 Some evacuees waited for rescue knee-deep in water on the partially submerged slides, some wearing life vests. Others stood on the wings or, fearing an explosion, swam away from the plane.[40] One passenger, after helping with the evacuation, found the wing so crowded that he jumped into the river and swam to a boat.[33][51][52]
Rescue
Two NY Waterway ferries arrived within minutes[53][54] and began taking people aboard using a Jason's cradle;[35] numerous other boats, including from the U.S. Coast Guard, were quickly on scene as well.[55] Sullenberger advised the ferry crews to rescue those on the wings first, as they were in more jeopardy than those on the slides, which detached to become life rafts.[35][failed verification] The last person was taken from the plane at 3:55 pm.[56]
About 140 New York City firefighters responded to nearby docks,[57][58][59] as did police, helicopters, and various vessels and divers.[57] Other agencies provided medical help on the Weehawken side of the river, where most passengers were taken.[60]
Boats surround the tail of the sunken plane, visible just above the water line.
Aftermath
The partially submerged aircraft tied up alongside Battery Park City
Passengers and crew sustained 95 minor and five serious injuries,[e][8]: 6 including a deep laceration in the leg of one of the flight attendants.[33][62] 78 people received medical treatment, mostly for minor injuries[63] and hypothermia;[64] 24 passengers and two rescuers were treated at hospitals,[65] with two passengers kept overnight. Eye damage from jet fuel caused one passenger to need glasses.[51] No pets were being carried on the flight.[66]
Each passenger later received a letter of apology, $5,000 in compensation for lost baggage (and $5,000 more if they could demonstrate larger losses), and a refund of their ticket price.[67][68] In May 2009, they received any belongings that had been recovered. Passengers also reported offers of $10,000 each in return for agreeing not to sue US Airways.[69]
Many passengers and rescuers later experienced post-traumatic stress symptoms such as sleeplessness, flashbacks, and panic attacks; some began an email support group.[70] Patrick Harten, the controller who had worked the flight, said that "the hardest, most traumatic part of the entire event was when it was over", and that he was "gripped by raw moments of shock and grief".[71]
A few months after the crash, Captain Sullenberger, while being interviewed by AARP Magazine, was asked how he was able to execute a nearly perfect water landing. He replied, "One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training. And on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal."[72]
In an effort to prevent similar accidents, officials captured and exterminated 1,235 Canada geese at 17 locations across New York City in mid-2009 and coated 1,739 goose eggs with oil to smother the developing goslings.[73]
As of 2017, 70,000 birds had been intentionally killed in New York City as a result of the ditching.[74]
The plane being recovered from the river during the night of January 17
The partially submerged plane was towed downstream and moored to a pier near the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, roughly 4 miles (6 km) from the ditching location.[36] On January 17, the aircraft was taken by barge[81][82] to New Jersey.[83] The left engine, which had been detached from the aircraft by the ditching, was recovered from the riverbed on January 23.[84]
It was found in the investigation that two days before the accident, the aircraft had experienced a compressor stall[89][90] on the right engine, but the engine had restarted and the flight was completed. A faulty temperature sensor was found to be the cause of the compressor stall. This sensor had been replaced and the inspection also verified the engine had not been damaged in that incident.[91]
On January 21, the NTSB found evidence of damage from a soft-body impact in the right engine along with organic debris including a feather.[92][93] The left engine also showed soft-body impacts, with "dents on both the spinner and inlet lip of the engine cowling. Five booster inlet guide vanes are fractured and eight outlet guide vanes are missing."[94] Both engines, missing large portions of their housings,[95] were sent to the manufacturer for examination.[94] On January 31, the plane was moved to Kearny, New Jersey. The bird remains[91][96] were later identified by DNA testing to be Canada geese, which typically weigh more than engines are designed to withstand ingesting.[91]
The NTSB used flight simulators to test the possibility that the flight could have returned safely to LaGuardia or diverted to Teterboro; only seven of the 13 simulated returns to La Guardia succeeded, and only one of the two to Teterboro. Furthermore, the NTSB report called these simulations unrealistic: "The immediate turn made by the pilots during the simulations did not reflect or account for real-world considerations, such as the time delay required to recognize the bird strike and decide on a course of action." A further simulation, in which a 35-second delay was inserted to allow for those, crashed.[8]: 50 In testimony before the NTSB, Sullenberger maintained that there had been no time to bring the plane to any airport and that attempting to do so would likely have killed those onboard and more on the ground.[100]
The Board ultimately ruled that Sullenberger had made the correct decision,[100] reasoning that the checklist for dual-engine failure is designed for higher altitudes when pilots have more time to deal with the situation, and that while simulations showed that the plane might have just barely made it back to LaGuardia, those scenarios assumed an instant decision to do so, with no time allowed for assessing the situation.[7]
On May 4, 2010, the NTSB issued its final report, which identified the probable cause as "the ingestion of large birds into each engine, which resulted in an almost total loss of thrust in both engines".[8]: 123 The final report credited the outcome to four factors: good decision-making and teamwork by the cockpit crew (including decisions to immediately turn on the APU and to ditch in the Hudson); that the A320 is certified for extended overwater operation (and hence carried life vests and additional raft/slides) even though not required for that route; the performance of the flight crew during the evacuation; and the proximity of working vessels to the ditching site. Contributing factors were good visibility and fast response times from the ferry operators and emergency responders. The report made 34 recommendations, including that engines be tested for resistance to bird strikes at low speeds; development of checklists for dual-engine failures at low altitude, and changes to checklist design in general "to minimize the risk of flight crewmembers becoming stuck in an inappropriate checklist or portion of a checklist"; improved pilot training for water landings; provision of life vests on all flights regardless of route, and changes to the locations of vests and other emergency equipment; research into improved wildlife management, and technical innovations on aircraft, to reduce bird strikes; research into possible changes in passenger brace positions; and research into "methods of overcoming passengers' inattention" during preflight safety briefings.[8]: 124
Author and pilot William Langewiesche asserted that insufficient credit was given to the A320's fly-by-wire design, by which the pilot uses a side-stick to make control inputs to the flight control computers. The computers then impose adjustments and limits of their own to keep the plane stable, which the pilot cannot override even in an emergency. This design allowed the pilots of Flight 1549 to concentrate on engine restart and deciding the course, without the burden of manually adjusting the glidepath to reduce the plane's rate of descent.[56] However, Sullenberger said that these computer-imposed limits also prevented him from achieving the optimal landing flare for the ditching, which would have softened the impact.[101]
Crew awards and honors
The reactions of all members of the crew, the split second decision making and the handling of this emergency and evacuation was "text book" and an example to us all. To have safely executed this emergency ditching and evacuation, with the loss of no lives, is a heroic and unique aviation achievement.
—Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators citation
An NTSB board member called the ditching "the most successful... in aviation history. These people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it and as a result, no lives were lost."[83]New York State GovernorDavid Paterson called the incident "a Miracle on the Hudson".[63][102][103]U.S. PresidentGeorge W. Bush said he was "inspired by the skill and heroism of the flight crew," and praised the emergency responders and volunteers.[104]President-electBarack Obama said that everyone was proud of Sullenberger's "heroic and graceful job in landing the damaged aircraft". He thanked the crew, whom he invited to his inauguration five days later.[105][106]
The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators awarded the crew the rarely bestowed Master's Medal on January 22, 2009, for outstanding aviation achievement, at the discretion of the Master of the Guild.[9]New York City MayorMichael Bloomberg presented the crew with the Keys to the City, and Sullenberger with a replacement copy of a library book lost on the flight, Sidney Dekker's Just Culture: Balancing Safety and Accountability.[107] Rescuers received Certificates of Honor.[108]
In August 2010, aeronautical chart publisher Jeppesen issued a humorous approach plate titled "Hudson Miracle APCH," dedicated to the five crew of Flight 1549 and annotated "Presented with Pride and Gratitude from your friends at Jeppesen".[113]
Sullenberger retired on March 3, 2010, after thirty years with US Airways and its predecessor, Pacific Southwest Airlines. At the end of his final flight he was reunited with Skiles and a number of the passengers from Flight 1549.[114]
It was featured in an episode of the TV show Mayday with the title "Hudson River Runway"; the episode is from season 10, episode 5.[119] The event was included in a "Hero Pilot" episode that included the Gimli Glider from 1983 and TACA Flight 110 from 1988.
It is featured in season 1, episode 1, of the TV show Why Planes Crash.
It is featured in the 2020 animated short film Hudson Geese directed by Bernardo Britto.[120]
^Delivered in 1999,[11] the plane, registered N106US, was one of 74 A320s then in service at US Airways. At the time of the accident, its airframe had logged 16,299 flights totaling 25,241 flight hours; and the engines 19,182 and 26,466 hours. The last "A Check" (performed every 550 flight hours) was passed on December 6, 2008, and the last C Check (annual comprehensive inspection) on April 19, 2008.[10][12] The aircraft was delivered to US Airways in August 1999. At the time of the accident, the aircraft was 9.6 years old.[13]
^The engines are the primary source of electrical and hydraulic power for the aircraft flight control systems,[29] but an auxiliary power unit (APU) can provide backup electrical power, and a ram air turbine (RAT) can be deployed into the airstream to provide backup hydraulic pressure and electrical power at certain speeds.[29] Both the APU and RAT were operating as the plane descended onto the river.[29]
^The Airbus A320 has a control that closes valves and other openings in the fuselage, in order to slow flooding after a water landing,[45] but the pilots did not activate it.[33] Sullenberger later said this would have made little difference since the water impact tore substantial holes in the fuselage.[19]
^A serious injury is defined as any injury that (1) requires hospitalization for more than 48 hours, starting within seven days from the date that the injury was received; (2) results in a fracture of any bone, except simple fractures of fingers, toes, or the nose; (3) causes severe hemorrhages or nerve, muscle, or tendon damage; (4) involves any internal organ; or (5) involves second- or third-degree burns or any burns affecting more than 5 percent of the body surface. A minor injury is defined as any injury that does not qualify as a fatal or serious injury.[61]
^ abcSniffen, Michael J. (January 16, 2009). "Pilot rejected 2 airport landings". San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 17, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
^ abcdefNeumeister, Larry; Caruso, David B.; Goldman, Adam; Long, Colleen (January 17, 2009). "NTSB: Pilot landed in Hudson to avoid catastrophe". Fox News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on May 31, 2014. Retrieved August 1, 2013. It all happened so fast, the crew never threw the aircraft's "ditch switch," which seals off vents and holes in the fuselage to make it more seaworthy.
^"USAir Flt.1549 Coming to Charlotte"(PDF). Contact: The Newsletter of the Carolinas Historic Aviation Commission. February 2011. Archived from the original(PDF) on July 18, 2011. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
^"Preliminary Accident Report". National Transportation Safety Board. January 16, 2009. Archived from the original on October 30, 2019. Retrieved September 16, 2019.
^ abDodd, Johnny (September 19, 2016). "After the Miracle". People. pp. 87–88.
^Sullenberger, Chesley (June 19, 2012). Making a Difference(video). Talks at Google. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved October 7, 2017.
^Tirella, Tricia (August 2, 2009). "A pat on the back". The Union City Reporter. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
^D'Amato, George (March 14, 2011), Hudson River Runway, Air Crash Investigation, archived from the original on May 10, 2022, retrieved May 10, 2022((citation)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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