Posted: January-16-2009 at 12:59am | IP Logged	Tweet

While sitting here on the computer snacking and reading some stuff, I've got TV on and watching the footage again of the airplane crash in New York City in the Hudson River, that's the most amazing thing I believe I've ever seen.

When first seeing coverage Thursday afternoon on CNN and Fox News, I could not believe anyone survived that deal. But it just truly goes to show that miracles do happen. Because for no one to have died, that's a miracle. The good Lord was looking out for everyone on that plane.

The pilot of the plane, he is a hero!!! Sure, he was just doing his job ... but he saved a lot of lives. If the plane had've crashed into buildings, there's no telling how many lives would've been lost. The pilot's skill in flying the plane, and laying it down softly on its belly to skim across the water, that's unreal. If the plane had've went nose first into the water, it would have ripped the plane apart on impact.

That one man I saw interviewed on TV who witnessed the crash, he said it looked like it was planned it came off so smoothly. 

Anyway, I'm so very thankful no lives were lost. A true miracle!!! 
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/plane_in_river_survivors

Passengers in NY plane ordeal marvel they're alive

By Marcus Franklin, Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK – Shock, relief, gratitude. Most of all, the soaked and freezing passengers of Flight 1549 just seemed amazed to be alive.

All of them.

"You've got to give it to the pilot," said Jeff Kolodjay of Norwalk, Conn., who was aboard the US Airways jet that ditched in the frigid Hudson River after an apparent collision with a flock of birds. "He made a hell of a landing."

"He was phenomenal," echoed Joe Hart, of Long Island, a salesman with investment firm ING.

"He landed it — I tell you what — the impact wasn't a whole lot more than a rear-end (collision). It threw you into the seat ahead of you. Both engines cut out, and he actually floated it into the river," he added.

Hart said he waited out on the wing of the plane, with others, as the water level rose from his knee to his waist.

"Most of the panic occurred while we were out on the wings or in the water, and the ferry boats were coming." But, he added, "I couldn't believe how fast they showed up. They were right there to pick us up."

"I knew I was safe," he said. "The big guy upstairs didn't want me." Later, Hart had recovered enough to send a humorous text message to an Associated Press reporter: "I'm certain this will get me an upgrade on my next flight!"

Soon after the plane took off from LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, N.C., passenger Albert Panero felt "an impact and some sort of loud noise." He started smelling smoke. "Everybody could tell that something was kind of going on, it wasn't just turbulence or something like that."

Soon, Panero said on WABC-TV, "I knew that we were going down."

"You think of all the things that are about to happen," he said. "I thought, 'I guess this is it. I guess I'm going to die.' I turned my phone back on because it's got GPS. I figured if anything happened, they could find me — or find whatever's left."

But then, the plane hit the water, and Panero was surprised that no huge explosion ensued. "I looked outside, and you could just see the water start creeping up pretty quick," he said. "So that's when I said, 'OK, we gotta get out of here.'"

At first, there was "a mixed emotion of yelling and crying," Panero said. But it didn't last. "A couple people just kind of took charge and calmed everyone. Everyone got to the exits, and whoever was there just opened them up."

Most of all, Panero was grateful to the pilot. "I can't believe he managed to land that plane," he marveled.

Dave Sanderson, 47, of Charlotte, who works for Oracle Corp., was headed home after a business trip. The married father of four was in seat 15A, on the left side of the plane.

"I heard an explosion, and I saw flames coming from the left wing and I thought, 'This isn't good,'" he said. "Then it was just controlled chaos. People started running up the aisle. People were getting shoved out of the way."

Kolodjay, 31, who had been headed to a golfing trip in Myrtle Beach, S.C., said he noticed a jolt and felt the plane drop. He looked out the left side of the jet and could see one of the engines on fire.

"Then the captain said, 'Brace for impact because we're going down,'" Kolodjay said. "It was intense." He said some passengers started praying. He said a few Hail Marys.

"It was bad, man," Kolodjay said. But he and others spoke of a sense of calm and purpose that quickly descended on the passengers and crew as the plane started filling with water and rescue boats swarmed to the scene. They decided women and children would be evacuated first.

"Then the rest of us got out," he said.

Passenger Fred Berretta, who lives in Charlotte, was on his way home from a business trip. He had one message for the pilot and co-pilot: "Thank you, thank you, thank you," he said.

After the impact, dozens of shivering passengers wrapped in white blankets evacuated aboard rescue boats.

"Their feet and legs were wet." said Dario Gongora, 60, a supervisor on the Circle Line ferry service, which offers sightseeing rides around Manhattan. "It looked like they were in shock."

Kolodjay was unhurt, but some other survivors were taken to hospitals for treatment of hypothermia or other injuries. It was not immediately clear how many required treatment.

Police scuba divers arrived at the scene to see a woman in her late 30s or early 40s in the water, hanging onto the side of a ferry boat.

She was "frightened out of her mind," suffering from hypothermia and unable to climb out of the water, said Detective Robert Rodriguez of the New York Police Department.

The detectives swam with her to another ferry and hoisted her aboard. As they were wrapping that up, another woman, who was on a rescue raft, fell off. So they put her on a Coast Guard boat.

About 70 passengers were taken to the New Jersey side of the river.

Some looked "smiling and happy to be alive." Others were "a little stunned," said Jeff Welz, director of public safety for the city of Weehawken. "I'm looking at them and saying, 'I don't know if I'd look good if I went through what they went through.'"

He said the injuries included hypothermia — the water was 42 degrees or less — and bruises. None appeared life-threatening.

Emergency medical service worker Helen Rodriguez was one of the first rescuers on the scene.

She saw stunned, soaking passengers, saying "I can't believe I'm alive." The worst injury she saw was a woman with two broken legs.

At St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, the feeling was the same.

"The few I talked with know how lucky they were," said emergency room Dr. Gabriel Wilson.

Eight survivors were in good condition there, while two were still being evaluated, including a female crew member with a possible bone fracture, Wilson said.

Posted: January-16-2009 at 7:51pm | IP Logged	Tweet

I watched the live press conference earlier this afternoon, and each time I see video footage of the plane sitting in the water ... I'm just amazed.

With all the people who were onboard just standing on the wings, waiting for the ferry boats to rescue them, I still don't see how everyone emerged from the plane. Something I saw on TV tonight said the pilot was the last off the plane, after he walked up and down the aisles making sure everyone was out of the plane.

Here's something me and my buddies talked about today: How did the plane just float, is it because it didn't break apart? Did the plane's fuselage have a full-load of fuel also help buoy the plane?

Once again, and it can't be said enough ... what the world saw yesterday with all the people standing on the wings of the plane waiting to be rescued, and no deaths having occured, it was a true miracle.  

Posted: January-16-2009 at 7:55pm | IP Logged	Tweet

I have to further add, I kind of get a lil' emotional when seeing the video footage, because once on a flight I had a major scare. Well at least it was a major scare to me.

When we're on a flight, we're at the mercy of the pilot and the mechanical condition of the plane. I've heard people say no way would they fly, because when planes crash everybody dies. Usually that's true, because take a plane falling from way up in the sky to the ground and that's just not a good situation.

This pilot yesterday, I believe I heard it said he had 47 years of flight experience. He saved a LOT of lives, on the plane and on the ground. That plane could've crashed into buildings and it might've been like 9-11 all over again. It's hard to say how many lives could've been lost on the ground.

Posted: January-17-2009 at 7:55am | IP Logged	Tweet

Major scare eh?

I'll be flying US Scare out of Syracuse Monday afternoon.

Thoughts and prayers please, LOL!

Posted: January-17-2009 at 9:57pm | IP Logged	Tweet

NTSB: Pilot landed in Hudson to avoid catastrophe

By Larry Neumeister and David B. Caruso, Associated Press

NEW YORK – The pilot of a crippled US Airways jetliner made a split-second decision to put down in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a "catastrophic" crash in a populated neighborhood, he told investigators Saturday.

Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger said that in the few minutes he had to decide where to set down the powerless plane Thursday afternoon, he felt it was "too low, too slow" and near too many buildings to go anywhere else, according to the National Transportation Safety Board account of his testimony.

The pilot and his first officer provided their first account to NTSB investigators Saturday of what unfolded inside the cockpit of US Airways Flight 1549 after it slammed into a flock of birds and lost both engines.

Co-pilot Jeff Skiles, who was flying the plane at takeoff, saw the birds coming in perfect formation, and made note of it. Sullenberger looked up, and in an instant his windscreen was filled with big, dark-brown birds.

"His instinct was to duck," said NTSB board member Kitty Higgins, recounting their interview. Then there was a thump, the smell of burning birds, and silence as both aircraft engines cut out.

The account illustrated how quickly things deteriorated after the bump at 3,000 feet, and the pilots' swift realization that returning to LaGuardia or getting to another airport was impossible.

With both engines out, Higgins said, flight attendants described complete silence in the cabin, "like being in a library." A smoky haze and the odor of burning metal or electronics filled the plane.

The blow had come out of nowhere. The NTSB said radar data confirmed that the aircraft intersected a group of "primary targets," almost certainly birds, as the jet climbed over the Bronx. Those targets had not been on the radar screen of the air traffic controller who approved the departure, Higgins said.

After the bird impact, Sullenberger told investigators he immediately took over flying from his co-pilot and made a series of command decisions.

Returning to LaGuardia, he quickly realized, was out. So was nearby Teterboro Airport, where he had never flown before, and which would require him to take the jet over densely populated northern New Jersey.

"We can't do it," he told air traffic controllers. "We're gonna be in the Hudson."

The co-pilot kept trying to restart the engines, while checking off emergency landing procedures on a three-page list that the crew normally begins at 35,000 feet.

Sullenberger guided the gliding jet over the George Washington Bridge and looked for a place to land.

Pilots are trained to set down near a ship if they have to ditch, so they can be rescued before sinking, and Sullenberger picked a stretch of water near Manhattan's commuter ferry terminals. Rescuers were able to arrive within minutes.

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.

After the hard landing, the crew's third flight attendant — the only one in the rear of the aircraft — made the decision not to open the back exits, she told NTSB investigators Saturday, the day she was released from the hospital.

Before she could get the rearmost passengers headed for the front of the plane, one woman managed to open one of the doors a crack, letting water into the cabin. Only once they were by the front exit did the flight attendant feel woozy and realize she had a deep laceration in her leg.

As the details of the river landing emerged Saturday, investigators worked to pull the airliner from the river. After they struggled most of the day with logistics, a crane began raising the submerged jet Saturday night — pulling the plane's dirty, dented and scraped tail fin, and then part of the body of the plane, above water.

The mood on the shoreline was festive as the crane inched the plane up and a police helicopter hovered overhead. People were shaking hands and investigators snapped photos.

With its full load of water, the craft was estimated to weigh 1 million pounds. The process was expected to last into the night. The jet was entirely submerged next to a sea wall in lower Manhattan and blocks of ice blanketed the river surface.

The NTSB said sonar teams may have located the sunken left engine of the plane. Preliminary radar reports identified an object directly below the crash site.

Crews need to remove the cockpit voice and flight-data recorders and find that engine. Divers originally thought both engines were lost, but realized Saturday that one was still attached. The water had been so dark and murky that they couldn't see it.

The investigation played out as authorities released the first video showing the spectacular crash landing. Security cameras on a Manhattan pier captured the Airbus A320 as it descended in a controlled glide, then threw up a spray as it slid across the river on its belly.

The video also illustrated the swift current that pulled the plane down the river as passengers walked out onto the wings and ferry boats moved in for the rescue.

Authorities also released a frantic 911 call that captured the drama of the flight. A man from the Bronx called at 3:29 p.m. Thursday, three minutes after the plane took off.

"Oh my God! It was a big plane. I heard a big boom just now. We looked up, and the plane came straight over us, and it was turning. Oh my God!" the caller told 911.

At almost the same moment, the pilot told air-traffic controllers that he would probably "end up in the Hudson."

Sullenberger was seen entering a conference room of a lower Manhattan hotel, surrounded by federal investigators, before his interview Saturday. The silver-haired pilot was wearing a white shirt and slacks and seemed composed.

When a reporter approached him for comment, one of the officials responded: "No chance."

NBC said "Today" show host Matt Lauer would interview Sullenberger from Washington on Monday, a day before President-elect Barack Obama is inaugurated.

His wife, Lorrie Sullenberger said "the enormity of the situation" had only begun to sink in Friday night as she watched the news.

"It was actually the first time that I cried since the whole incident started," she said on "The Early Show" on CBS. She also said the family was making plans to attend the inauguration.

She suggested the happy ending was good for the country.

"I think everybody needed some good news, frankly," she said.

Experts say the threat that birds have long posed to aircraft has been exacerbated by two new factors over the past 20 years: Airline engines have been designed to run quieter, meaning that birds can't hear them coming, and many birds living near airports have given up migrating because they find the area hospitable year-round.

Canada geese, one of the most dangerous birds for aircraft, historically migrate not because of cold but a lack of food. Winter weather kills the grass they eat and sources of fresh water freeze over.

But in developed areas, there is often both food and grass year round, found in parks and golf courses.

And there isn't much that be done in the engineering of jet engines to armor them against a support without hurting their ability to generate thrust.

The most vulnerable part of the engine is the fan, which can be bent or smashed by an ingested bird. Pieces of busted blade then rip through the rest of the engine like shrapnel.

Engines have been fortified so that they can stay intact in the event of such a support, but they usually cannot be restarted once they are damaged, said Archie Dickey, an associate professor of aviation environmental science at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's campus in Prescott, Ariz.

He said hits hard enough to cause a total failure are rare, only happening two or three times a year worldwide.

"That's extremely rare," Dickey said. "The chance of it hitting both engines, I'd guess it is less than 1 percent."

Most bird supports happen within five miles of an airport, lower than 1,000 feet, as planes are taking off or landing. Aircraft hit thousands of birds every year, but they usually bounce off harmlessly.

The US Airways flight hit the birds at 3,000 feet, the NTSB says. That caused a total engine failure, and the plane hit the river 3 1/2 minutes later.

"Brace! Brace! Head down!" the flight attendants shouted to the passengers.

Then, they were in the water. Two flight attendants likened it to a hard landing — nothing more. There was one impact, no bounce, then a gradual deceleration.

"Neither one of them realized that they were in the water," Higgins said.

The plane came to a stop. The captain gave a one-word command, "Evacuate."

Posted: January-17-2009 at 9:58pm | IP Logged	Tweet

Hey "BugMan," would you rather take your chances flying the friendly skies with "U.S. Scare" or riding with "WOO-WOO" in her Explorer? HA HA HA HA

Posted: January-18-2009 at 5:06am | IP Logged	Tweet

Hey RW, I drove through a flock of turkeys and bagged a 14 1/2 pounder !! Also never hit a deer (knock on wood), so far. Had a few close calls. As they say-Close only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades!!

Josh don't like to ride with Bobby in his Toyota truck!! We always go in my Explorer. Even the dog don't like his driving!