Crews Hoist Ditched Plane From Hudson River

[Zenlitened]

Source: New York Times/AP

Salvage crews hoisted a battle-scared US Airways jetliner from the Hudson River and onto a barge late Saturday, three days after the pilot of the crippled aircraft made what he told investigators was a split-second decision to attempt a water landing to avoid a possible ''catastrophic'' crash in a populated neighborhood.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/18/us/AP-Plane-Splashdown.html

---

NYT photo:

[originalpckelly]

1. The engines are still intact after all?

Weird, I think I remember hearing different on the news.

Thanks for keeping us up to date on this.

[Suich]

4. I've heard a couple of different things, too.

Looks like at least one is somewhat intact.

[Left Coast2020]

10. NPR said the left engine fell off.

They thought both went, but they retracted that part of the story. And I saw video on Buzzflash. Security camera--at a distance--caught plane landing on water. It was fuzzy, but you could see it. It was beautiful. Nose up, and glide gently right on down. The pilot is diffinently a professional! Well, thats what 30-years of flying will get ya.

What I would like to know, since I fly occasionally to China on business, is if he had no power, how did he get hydraulics to work to make flaps bring nose up?

Any pilots in the audience?

:shrug:

[Oldtimeralso]

11. The A320 has a RAT

that is ram air turbine that can be extended by the crew, it is basically a windmill that takes the air of the plane moving forward to turn a Hydraulic pump and a small generator for emergency lights and instrumentation.

[elleng]

13. SMART!

.

[Tesha]

16. They didn't need that.

The A320 has an APU ("Auxiliary Power Unit"). This is a small
gas-turbine engine located at the rear of the fuselage that
provides starting power to the main engines as well as
a third source of electricity and hydraulic power for the
operation of the plane. The APU would be likely to be
unaffected by a bird strike.

Reference:

o http://www.logistics-business-review.com/article_news.asp?guid=EEA29E8C-7040-43C8-B2C2-1CB2795C5074

Tesha

[CreekDog]

15. Flight attendants on the plane said at 3000 feet the engines went silent

"as quiet as a library"

i would have needed clean underwear at that point.

can you imagine being 3000+ feet in the air and as a passenger, hearing the engines go dead silent?

:wow:

[Duppers]

17. uh? the NYT article referred to the missing left engine

"Higgins also said ice floes in the Hudson were hampering the search for the left engine, which separated from the aircraft and sank to the bottom of the river."

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. The whole odyssey of Flight 1549 has been amazing!

And that latest photo is amazing, too!

[Whoa_Nelly]

3. One story link of many

pics at link


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hFK5_JavthKZGSxIuIYv6rgWK2UQD95PBJOG0
Crews hoist ditched plane from Hudson River

By LARRY NEUMEISTER – 1 hour ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Salvage crews have used a big crane to lift a downed US Airways jet from the Hudson River and onto a barge.

The bottom half of the jetliner looked battle-scarred as it inched up from the water late Saturday, carried by five large slings.

The metal on the bottom of the plane appears shredded and torn. In some places it looks like it was sheared off. The right engine looked as though the outside had been peeled off, and the right wing appears charred.

Chunks dropped in the water as it was maneuvered in the darkness, before it was placed on the barge.

<snip>

Earlier, they faced delays because of treacherous conditions and the waterlogged craft's immense weight.


more links
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ft=i&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1293359630

[Zenlitened]

7. Good pics there -- thanks for adding the link!

Looks like the very, very tail of the plane was grated off. Which would make sense, I guess, based on the way the pilot and co-pilot sort of dragged the tail in the river before easing the whole thing down.

:wow:

[Old and In the Way]

5. The plane is in amazingly good shape, considering the ditching.

I'm impressed that it is in the shape it is in.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. No kidding, the United 757 I flew last week looked worse at the gate

The francophobes and "ain't boeing, ain't going" guys have sure been quite this week.

[Suich]

8. That's an amazing picture...

It looked a lot smaller when it was in the Hudson. Pretty incredible they were able to lift it out in one piece, considering how heavy it was with all the fuel on board.

[TahitiNut]

9. Wells Fargo gets to write off a few million with that one.

(They're the owner ... U. S. Air leased it.)

[TahitiNut]

12. Foie Gras!

Goose smoothies all around.

[1776Forever]

14. Video link - hard to find this but here it is -

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Nation/2009/01/17/Shredded-plane-lifted-from/1232254267.html