US Air flight crashes into Hudson River.

[Moonliner]

You can check just about any news site for the details, but apparently an Air bus with one hundred and some odd passengers went down into the Hudson river today, and EVERYONE made it out OK. Freaking amazing.

[BarTopDancer]

Those pilots are heroes.

[lizziebith]

They are saying "double bird strike" as in birds got sucked into both engines! And, words I never want to hear uttered by a pilot: "prepare for impact." :eek:

[Ghoulish Delight]

You can check just about any news site for the details, but apparently an Air bus with one hundred and some odd passengers went down into the Hudson river today, and EVERYONE made it out OK. Freaking amazing.
What part of " fleeing for safety in the [Hudson river]" counts as "made it out OK"? Eeeeew.

[Alex]

I knew giving visas to al qaeda birds would be a mistake.

[Ghoulish Delight]

They are saying "double bird strike" as in birds got sucked into both engines! And, words I never want to hear uttered by a pilot: "prepare for impact." :eek:
A passenger snapped this photo outside his window just before takeoff.

http://www.freakingnews.com/pictures/15000/Suicide-Bomber-15424.jpg


sorry, one of the articles had the idiotic "terrorism is not suspected" line, and that got me doing a google image search


ETA: heh, and then Alex posted while I was posting this.

[Moonliner]

What part of " fleeing for safety in the [Hudson river]" counts as "made it out OK"? Eeeeew.

The part where the passengers were not all turned into goo by the force of the impact.

[lizziebith]

Okay, I just noticed that Moonliner posted this in the JetSet area...LOL

[Alex]

Those pilots are heroes.

Well, at a minimum they were better than Cory Lidle.

[Ghoulish Delight]

The part where the passengers were not all turned into goo by the force of the impact.
It's the Hudson, that's debatable.

[Moonliner]

It's the Hudson, that's debatable.

Dude, It's the Hudson that SAVED them. If the plane had landed in water it would have sunk rather than just sitting on top and giving everyone time to exit the aircraft.

[Snowflake]

Dude, It's the Hudson that SAVED them. If the plane had landed in water it would have sunk rather than just sitting on top and giving everyone time to exit the aircraft.

Like the Potomac, for instance. ;)

[Moonliner]

Like the Potomac, for instance. ;)

Nope, last time a jetliner landed in the Potomac it sank.

[Snowflake]

Nope, last time a jetliner landed in the Potomac it sank.

Yes, that's what I meant.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Miracle on the Hudson (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28678669/)

Ahem. The man has 40+ years of flying experience, 29 with US Airways. He has worked with the NTSB, does safety and emergency training consulting. He is an expert in pilot safety procedures and in crash scene investigation.

That's not a miracle, that's training.

[bewitched]

Miracle on the Hudson (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28678669/)

Ahem. The man has 40+ years of flying experience, 29 with US Airways. He has worked with the NTSB, does safety and emergency training consulting. He is an expert in pilot safety procedures and in crash scene investigation.

That's not a miracle, that's training.

He's also a certified glider instructor which, granted, are generally a bit smaller than an Airbus. (the glider, that is...not the instructor)

[Alex]

But also the instructor.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

He's also a certified glider instructor which, granted, are generally a bit smaller than an Airbus. (the glider, that is...not the instructor)

And that give him experience landing planes without engines.

[Alex]

Ok, I've long learned to accept that most people use "miracle" as a synonym for "something happened that I perceive, often incorrectly, to be highly unlikely" and not "something that happened through direct divine intervention" so I mostly ignore the widespread misuse of the word miracle.

But this quote from this morning's local news (I think it is accurate, but from menory 45 minutes ago while running on a treadmill):

Even though the landing was nothing short of a miracle, some passengers are giving credit to the pilot...

That kind of annoyed me. I would hope that ALL of the passengers are giving credit to the pilot. Or if they are primarily giving it to some deity I hope they are also telling that deity to go **** itself for crashing the plane in the first place.

[bewitched]

Do the ones not giving credit to the pilot think that God landed it?

[Moonliner]

Do the ones not giving credit to the pilot think that God landed it?

Probably.

[Alex]

It was more the "even though" from the reporter that was annoying me than the "some" from the passengers. The latter I'm well used to.

[Moonliner]

Or, it could just mean that the reporter was only able to talk to a few of the passengers and thus reported: "some of the passengers..."

[Alex]

And now I see that in post #19 I left out words that I thought I had written making it clearer that my primary issue was that the "even though" implies that credit given to the pilot is misdirected.

The "some people" part was just a distant second that ended up looking like my primary issue due to bad writing.

[Strangler Lewis]

No one seems to be wondering what the flock of geese had done to offend God that he sent a bolt from the sky to smite them.

[Deebs]

No one seems to be wondering what the flock of geese had done to offend God that he sent a bolt from the sky to smite them.

Except a small child. When I said that everyone had made it out safely, my son said "Not the birds."

[Moonliner]

No one seems to be wondering what the flock of geese had done to offend God that he sent a bolt from the sky to smite them.

Or perhaps we should be looking at why the birds were so depressed they decided to end it all that way.

[Strangler Lewis]

Or perhaps we should be looking at why the birds were so depressed they decided to end it all that way.

Secularist nihilism.

[Alex]

al qaeda birds. They are not victims of god's wrath but warriors in gods vengeance. They have been rewarded and are martyrs.

[Moonliner]

al qaeda birds. They are not victims of god's wrath but warriors in gods vengeance. They have been rewarded and are martyrs.

Goose, al qaeda, God, sucked into jet engine, pate, feathers...

Goddammit there must be a really bad pun somewhere in all of that but I just can't come up with it.

[Moonliner]

Wow. Just wow.

I just had a discussion with some of the folks here at the office. They heard at the time of the crash the water temperature was 40 Degrees and the outside temp was in the teens, so they said they would have waited in the water where it was warmer.

Oy vey!

[Kevy Baby]

It wasn't a crash, it was an unscheduled water landing.

[BarTopDancer]

Video (http://punditkitchen.com/2009/01/17/us-airways-1549-crash-video/#more-15095) (I'm sure YouTube has more)

[Morrigoon]

Wow. Just wow.

I just had a discussion with some of the folks here at the office. They heard at the time of the crash the water temperature was 40 Degrees and the outside temp was in the teens, so they said they would have waited in the water where it was warmer.

Oy vey!
Which is dumb since 40 is plenty cold enough to get hypothermic and water will pull heat away from you WAY quicker than air

[Moonliner]

US Airways passengers get $5,000 each; is it enough? (http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-01-26-us-airways-river-crash_N.htm)


Many US Airways (LCC) passengers who endured a crash landing in the Hudson River 12 days ago say they appreciate the $5,000 that the airline has offered — but some say it's not enough.
Joe Hart, a salesman from Charlotte who suffered a bloody nose and bruises, says he "would like to be made whole for the incident."


It was good for US Airways to reimburse passengers for the cost of the flight and lost luggage, but in this case I don't see why they should be on the hook for more than that.

The accident was caused by an act of God type thing and the crew from all accounts performed admirably. Yeah it sucks to be on a plane that lands in a river but I don't see how US Airways is responsible for your emotional trauma.

It's not clear from the article, perhaps Joe is just asking for the medical costs of patching up his nose but it reads like he's looking for a lottery type payday.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Near as I can tell, this is not the fault of US Air. In fact, by all accounts their employees performed admirably in this situation. If US Air decides they want to offer a goodwill "present" to their affected customers, those customers ought not look that horse in the mouth.

[Ghoulish Delight]

There is one unanswered question that may put some liability on US Air.

A bird strike should not bring down a jet liner. Geese are big, and perhaps it was just an unlucky hit in just the right place at just the right time. But the engine in question had just had work done (replaced air compressor if I recall) a week earlier. So it may be that the work wasn't done right which left the engine unable to withstand a strike that it would normally survive.

That said, anyone asking for anything beyond minor compensatory settlement (I think a handful of free tickets is a fair price) for anyone walking away with minor injuries is a greedy whore.

[~MS~]

Well it had to happen, instead of being grateful they were on a flight with the most experienced crew they could hope for and basically walked away from what in any other circumstance would have been catastrophic someone is going to file lawsuits. I'd venture to say they won't be successful, but all it takes is a lawyer willing to file the claim ....and then hope to settle out of court. I hope US airways holds firm, cover any medical that is a direct result of the landing, replace lost belongings, which in MOST cases I'd say $5,000 should do unless it was special circumstances and someone had some high end camera or electronics in their luggage ..and they can't lie about it because most of the luggage was recovered, it's ruined but they have it.

[Drince88]

Sorry, Mr. Hart - what expenses did you have that exceeded $5000? Do you not know the definition of 'made whole'?

[Alex]

A bird strike should not bring down a jet liner.

Is this correct? I can't find it with a quick search but a Slate article after it happened said that jet engines are rated to functionally survive bird impacts up to a certain weight (4 pounds I think) and that geese are generally above that weight.

So if that's correct*, the poor luck of having geese hit all engines might reasonably be expected to bring the plane down.

Regardless of liability I would expect, though, plenty of lawsuits and if the plaintiffs are somewhat reasonable in their greed plenty of settlements.

[Moonliner]

There is one unanswered question that may put some liability on US Air.

A bird strike should not bring down a jet liner. Geese are big, and perhaps it was just an unlucky hit in just the right place at just the right time. But the engine in question had just had work done (replaced air compressor if I recall) a week earlier. So it may be that the work wasn't done right which left the engine unable to withstand a strike that it would normally survive.

That said, anyone asking for anything beyond minor compensatory settlement (I think a handful of free tickets is a fair price) for anyone walking away with minor injuries is a greedy whore.

From the descriptions I heard here, it was not so much a bird strike as a flock strike affecting both engines. One report stated that engines are rated to withstand a hit from a bird up to 5 lbs. Geese are significantly larger than that.

We know the engine still attached to the plane had "organic" matter in it. As long as the second engine has bird goo as well I think US Air is in the clear.

[Alex]

Sorry, Mr. Hart - what expenses did you have that exceeded $5000? Do you not know the definition of 'made whole'?

He wants his nose blood back.