US Airways Flight 1549

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US Airways Flight 1549
The Airbus A320 is floating on the Hudson River.
Accident summary
Accident type Ditching  after a bird strike
place Hudson River between Manhattan , New York and Weehawken , New Jersey , United States
40 ° 46 ′ 10.2 ″  N , 74 ° 0 ′ 16.7 ″  W Coordinates: 40 ° 46 ′ 10.2 ″  N , 74 ° 0 ′ 16.7 "  W.
date January 15, 2009
Fatalities 0
Survivors 155 (all)
Injured 5
Aircraft
Aircraft type Airbus A320
operator US Airways
Mark N106US
Departure airport LaGuardia Airport
Stopover Charlotte Douglas International Airport
Destination airport Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Passengers 150
crew 5
Lists of aviation accidents
Airplane flight path
Radio communication during ditching

The US Airways flight 1549 (AWE 1549) on 15 January 2009 was a domestic airliner of US Airways from LaGuardia Airport ( New York City ) to Seattle / Tacoma in the US state of Washington with planned stopover at the airport Charlotte in North Carolina .

About three minutes after take-off - the aircraft was climbing and was about 1000 m above ground - Canada geese sucked into the engines ( bird strike ) caused both engines to fail. The Airbus A320-214 was flying in glide on. Another three minutes later, the pilot succeeded in ditching on the Hudson River between New York and Weehawken , New Jersey . All 155 people on board survived.

The aircraft, which was salvaged from the river and largely remained intact, was written off as a total write-off.

Flight history

The flight took off from Runway 04 at LaGuardia Airport on January 15 at 3:26 p.m. local time (8:26 p.m. UTC ) . 150 passengers and 5 crew members were on board the machine. The flight captain was Chesley B. Sullenberger , a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy , who flew F-4 Phantom with the US Air Force between 1973 and 1980 and since then commercial aircraft with US Airways. The first officer on board was Jeffrey B. Skiles. The plane was on its way to its stopover at Charlotte Douglas International Airport .

The pilots of flight AWE 1549 reported to air traffic control at an altitude of about 975 m (3200 feet) above the Bronx borough " bird strike and loss of thrust in both engines" and the intention to return to LaGuardia airport. When air traffic control offered to attempt a landing on runway 13, the pilots replied that they were not able to do so and that “it might end up in the Hudson”. The pilots then requested an emergency landing at Teterboro Airport in Bergen County , New Jersey, which is in sight , which was immediately reported as available by air traffic control there. When air traffic control informed him of the change of course for runway 1 on Teterboro, he initially replied clearly “we won't make it” and, when asked about the desired runway, added “we will be in the Hudson”. Air traffic control asked for a repetition, which did not happen again. After that there was no more radiotelephone contact between flight control and flight 1549. Another aircraft on the same radio channel answered, "I think he said he would go into the Hudson River ".

About six minutes after take off, the aircraft touched down south on the Hudson River between 48th Street in Manhattan and Port Imperial in Weehawken , New Jersey. This ditching is considered a masterpiece of the captain, since the engines hanging under the wings usually tear off asymmetrically when diving into the water and the enormous likewise asymmetrical resistance pulls the aircraft off the track, which usually breaks it. In this case one of the engines also broke off, but the master managed to keep the engine on course and thus avoid it breaking apart. The Airbus Flight Envelope Protection was activated because the airspeed was less than 150 knots above ground. It prevented a too steep angle of attack to a stall to avoid. Captain Sullenberger pulled the stick as far back as possible; the fly-by-wire system weakened the control impulse in such a way that the Airbus hit the Hudson with an angle of attack of 13 ° to 14 ° and a positive incline. If the stall had occurred shortly before the splashback, structural damage to the machine would very likely have occurred and the number of injuries would have been high. The ditching site is less than a mile from Times Square ; three ferry docks are less than 1 km away. Before ditching, the aircraft flew over the George Washington Bridge according to radar data at an altitude of about 270 m (900 feet).

The ditching was recorded by several building surveillance cameras and partly by a US Coast Guard camera .

After the machine had come to a standstill, the cabin crew immediately initiated the evacuation. There was no panic. The passengers and crew left the aircraft part by the front in the outputs as liferaft serving escape chutes and partly through the emergency window which it directly to the wing leading to the very slow-sinking aircraft. The flight captain was the last to leave the aircraft after having made two complete inspections of the entire aircraft to ensure that all passengers and crew members had left the aircraft (→ The captain is the last to disembark ).

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

Aircraft

The Airbus with the aircraft registration N106US was put into service in 1999 and was equipped with two CFM-International engines of the type CFM56-5B4 / P , one of which tore off during ditching. It was initially falsely reported that both engines had torn off. The Airbus drifted on the Hudson after ditching and, after rescuing the occupants, was eventually towed to a pier near the World Financial Center , about six kilometers from the ditching site. He was moored there to prevent the current from driving him out into the Atlantic Ocean and was finally brought ashore on January 18, 2009.

The Airbus A320 has a ditch preparation switch that closes all valves in the lower part of the fuselage to improve the aircraft's buoyancy. This ditch mode was not activated before ditching because it is only mentioned at the end of the emergency manual. The procedures for emergency watering are provided in the emergency manual for altitudes around 10,000 feet; the crew of Flight 1549 apparently ran out of time to activate ditching mode.

rescue

The plane floating on the Hudson River surrounded by Coast Guard ferries and ships , FDNY , NYPD .
The first harbor ferry arrives about three and a half minutes after the water splash

Immediately after the observed ditching of the aircraft, virtually all ships sailing the Hudson changed their course and rushed to the rescue at top speed. Less than four minutes after ditching, the first ferry arrived from the nearby ferry terminals, others followed immediately, and tugs arrived and took the first passengers on board. Shortly afterwards, the fireboat John D. McKean of the New York Fire Department and boats and helicopters from the Coast Guard and New York Police arrived at the scene of the accident and rescued the passengers from the water and from the wings on which they had partially gone. Others had saved themselves on the inflated evacuation slides . The sides of the ferries were over two meters high; the passengers could not climb it without aids. The ship's crews lowered rope ladders and nets; they also threw life jackets and life rings into the water as a precaution.

All passengers and crew members were rescued thanks to the professional cabin crew, about two thirds of them suffered minor injuries or had to be treated in hospitals because of hypothermia (the water temperature of the Hudson was 5 ° C); a total of five people were registered as seriously injured. The New York Fire Department had 35 ambulances in action, and other ambulances were made available by various other organizations, including on the New Jersey side of the river. Most of the injured were rushed to Saint Vincent's Catholic Medical Center in Greenwich Village or St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center. It was later announced that a deep cut in a flight attendant's leg was the most serious injury.

The outgoing US President George W. Bush and his successor Barack Obama congratulated the pilot on his outstanding performance over the phone. Obama invited him, his family and the crew of Flight 1549 to his inauguration as US President five days later.

Recovery of the machine

Recovery of the wreck
Wreck of the Airbus in the Charlotte Aviation Museum

The machine was recovered three days after the accident. The right engine was damaged, the left one was torn off. The underside of the fuselage was also badly damaged. The flight data recorders were evaluated and confirmed the failure of both engines. The left engine was recovered by divers on January 23, 2009.

After the investigation by the NTSB , the fuselage and the wings and tail units that had been detached for transport were handed over to Chartis Insurance. Bids could be submitted until March 27, 2010, the heavily damaged parts were sold to the highest bidder. The aircraft was in the 10 June 2011 Aviation Museum of Charlotte (North Carolina) brought. The wings and tail units remained dismantled for transport. The machine, which has now been completed again, is displayed in the museum as a permanent exhibit. ( 35 ° 13 ′ 12 ″  N , 80 ° 55 ′ 50 ″  W )

Investigation of the cause

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

The NTSB confirmed that bird debris was found in both engines. The bird remains found could be assigned to Canada geese .

filming

The events of the incident were filmed by Clint Eastwood under the title Sully (2016). Tom Hanks played the main role of Captain Sullenberger, other roles include Aaron Eckhart , Laura Linney and Anna Gunn . The film opened in German cinemas on December 1, 2016, and the US theatrical release was on September 9, 2016.

In the Canadian television series Mayday - Alarm im Cockpit , the accident was recreated in 2011 in the fifth episode of season 10 as the Hudson River Runway (German title: Emergency landing in the Hudson River ).

See also

literature

  • Chesley B. Sullenberger, Jeffrey Zaslow: You don't have to be a hero: what values ​​are important in life. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-570-10049-3
  • Laura Parker, William Prochnau: Emergency landing in the Hudson River. What happened on Flight 1549? Passengers and eyewitnesses reconstruct the sensational ditching of flight captain Sullenberger. MavenPress Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-941719-02-6

Web links

Commons : US Airways Flight 1549  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files
 Wikinews: New York: Airliner crashes in Hudson River  - News

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ken Belson: Updates From Jet Rescue in Hudson River. In: The New York Times . January 17, 2009, accessed January 31, 2009 .
  2. ↑ a b c d NTSB Accident Brief Report, NTSB Identification: DCA09MA026. National Transportation Safety Board , January 2009, accessed March 16, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e Aircraft accident data and report in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  4. ^ Matthew L. Wald, Al Baker: 1549 to Tower: 'We're Gonna End Up in the Hudson'. In: New York Times. January 17, 2009, accessed January 31, 2009 .
  5. ↑ FlightAware> Live Flight Tracker> Track Log> AWE1549> 15-Jan-2009> KLGA-KLGA. Flightaware.com, archived from the original on January 16, 2009 ; accessed on January 16, 2009 .
  6. ↑ US Airways # 1549. In: FlightAware . January 15, 2009, accessed January 15, 2009 .
  7. ↑ Russell Goldman, Rich Esposito, Emily Friedman, 'Pilot Did a Masterful Job': Rescue After US Airways Crash In Hudson River. In: ABC News. January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  8. ^ Helden vom Hudson Welt.de, accessed December 22, 2016.
  9. ↑ Amy Westfeldt: Hudson River Hero is an ex-fighter pilot. AP News January 15, 2009; archived from the original on January 19, 2009 ; accessed on March 16, 2015 .
  10. ^ Robert Olsen: Full Transcript L116. (PDF) In: Federal Aviation Administration . February 2, 2009, accessed March 23, 2009 .
  11. ^ All 155 safe after pilot ditches jet in NYC river . 
  12. ↑ www.ntsb.gov
  13. ↑ a b Airplane in Hudson River after failed takeoff, FAA says. In: CNN . January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  14. ↑ CCTV US Airways 1549 Landing Hudson River , Airboyd on YouTube, January 18, 2009, US Airways 1549 Con Edison Security Camera CCTV , Airboyd on YouTube, January 24, 2009
  15. ↑ Hudson Crash from Coast Guard Camera (from time 2:02). In: LiveLeak . January 16, 2009, accessed February 1, 2009 .
  16. ↑ New York celebrates the Hudson miracle. In: Spiegel Online . January 16, 2009, accessed February 1, 2009 .
  17. ↑ The Little Heroes of the Hudson. In: Spiegel Online . January 16, 2009, accessed February 1, 2009 .
  18. Jump up ↑ Hudson Miracle - Bird remains in both engines. (No longer available online.) In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . February 5, 2009; archived from the original on February 8, 2009 ; Retrieved March 8, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sueddeutsche.de
  19. ↑ The unfortunate machine lost both engines when ditching. In: Focus . January 16, 2009. Retrieved March 8, 2009 .
  20. ↑ US Airways airplane crashes in Hudson River - Hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger III saves all aboard. Retrieved January 16, 2009 .
  21. ↑ Günter Stauch: Completely new insights for all of us. In: Focus . Retrieved March 8, 2009 .
  22. ^ Larry Neumeister, David B. Caruso: Crews hoist plane from Hudson. (No longer available online.) In: detnews. January 17, 2009, formerly in the original ; accessed on March 8, 2009 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.detnews.com  
  23. ^ Russell Goldman, Rich Esposito: Jet Crashes Into Hudson River: 'Can't Believe What I Saw'. In: ABC News. January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  24. ^ Russell Goldman, Rich Esposito, Emily Friedman: Passengers: First Engine on Fire, Then Frigid Water. In: ABC News . January 16, 2009, accessed February 1, 2009 .
  25. ↑ Geraldine Baum, Matea Gold: All on US Airways plane are safe - within 5 minutes of crash landing. In: Los Angeles Times . January 16, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  26. ↑ Scott Čurkin and Bob Monek: Miracle on the Hudson. In: ABC News . January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  27. ^ Airplane in Hudson River after failed takeoff, FAA says. In: CNN . January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  28. ^ Robert Smith, Melissa Block: Passengers Treated For Hypothermia. In: NPR. January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  29. ↑ A Quick Rescue Kept Death Toll at Zero. In: New York Times. January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  30. ↑ Susana Enriquez: Hospital checks flight 1549 passengers for deeper injuries. In: News Day. January 15, 2009, archived from the original on October 18, 2010 ; accessed on January 16, 2009 .
  31. ↑ Plane in Hudson tells story of what went right, NTSB says. In: CNN . January 16, 2009, accessed January 19, 2009 .
  32. ↑ The aircraft's engines failed at the same time. In: The world . January 18, 2009, accessed February 1, 2009 .
  33. ^ Second engine recovered from the Hudson River. In: The world. January 24, 2009, accessed January 2, 2009 .
  34. ↑ A320 wreck from the Hudson for sale, flight revue of January 21, 2010 , accessed February 2, 2010
  35. ↑ http://www.carolinasaviation.org/ Homepage of the museum
  36. ^ NTSB Sending Go team to New York City for Hudson River Airliner Accident. In: National Transportation Safety Board . January 15, 2009, accessed January 16, 2009 .
  37. ↑ Decisions of fate every second. In: Der Spiegel . January 16, 2009. Retrieved January 18, 2009 .
  38. ^ Third Update on Investigation into Ditching of US Airways Jetliner into Hudson River. NTSB , Feb. 4, 2009; archived from the original on June 4, 2011 ; Retrieved February 5, 2009 .
  39. ^ NTSB Confirms Birds In Engines Of Flight 1549. In: NJ.com. Associated Press, February 4, 2009, accessed February 5, 2009 .
  40. ^ Sully in the International Movie Database. In: imdb.com. Retrieved August 16, 2016 .