Knowing something about the topic, I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this pilot. There are two in flight emergencies that just scare me to death. The first, in flight fire. The second, engine out on take off.
The hardest thing to do is stick with the general rule, under your go-around altitude, to “land straight ahead.” Doing that in the water is just exceptionally hard psychologically and practically. The temptation is to try and turn the plane, while “low and slow” and that is just the kiss of death.
Maintaining the energy to get where you want to be and then bleeding it off before landing without stalling the nose into the drink is just a gargantuan accomplishment.
This pilot, and his first officer deserve medals, without a doubt.
Not only that, but, at least given the picture, it looks like the First Officer is still in the cockpit. That’s dedication.
This is also one of the ONLY successful jet emergency water landings I have EVER seen or heard about.
Perhaps Dealbreaker readers would be interested in throwing a few dollars into a little “Hero Fund?”
What say you, Dealbreaker readers?
— Advertisement —
Comments (181)
Leave a comment
You can log in with your account or comment as a guest below.
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
First to realize that life is not about your job. Life is about being alive…
FIRST. This guy deserves wideclops!
Don’t stall me, bro
mug
How much are bus rides to charlotte? Phobia levels increasing….
Negative EP.
Let US Air give them some $$$ from the money they make off of charging for drinks.
These guys do deserve medals. Throw the fund together EP
At a minimum a stick or two of BofA shares for saving their employees!
That pilot is a legend, end of story.
Go to the treasury and ask for money.
Um hellmuthafucking yes
All of a sudden EP thinks she’s Maverick.
Too long, didn’t read
I will chip in my Wachovia bonus
Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.
not to diminish the good feelings, but it appears to me that some people exited WITH THEIR CARRY-ONS! seriously, survival first, bag of make-up and fritos next.
Too long, didn’t read
EP = Mother Goose
Gasparino reporting that PETA already started a fund for the geese.
@16 nicely played.
I’d grab my carry on – seriously, if done correctly, you could get out of your seat while grabbing the stuff at your feet with one motion. Here, let me demonstrate…
@19 – winner!!!
EP, you’re a PILOT?!
All bankers on board should be given Lifelong Immunity from bank layoffs
@10: Pretty sure EP has her Commercial, Multi-Engine and Instrument ratings. I would say that makes her more ‘Maverick’ than you. I could be wrong. How many hours do you have? 250 Single Engine IFR here.
Something always bugs me about Airbus planes. I can’t put my finger on it exactly but they do tend to be involved in some very unusual accidents. If it’s not the software it’s the airframe. That’s not to say that this is unique to Airbus but I do wonder anytime I have no choice but to step on to one.
I am over the moon that no one appears to have been killed or seriously injured.
Kudos to the crew.
22- all bankers on board are going to Crested Butte to tend bar and ski for the rest of their lives…
@10 – given the circumstances, I’ll skip the obvious “Goose” joke here
EP has spent a lot of time on MS Flight Simulator.
lets sign up that pilot to land this economy
How much are bus rides to charlotte? Phobia levels increasing….
“Posted by guest, Jan 15, 2009 5:11PM
EP has spent a lot of time on MS Flight Simulator.”
That too, actually.
Wachovia Senior Bankers get their bonus numbers tomorrow.
“Jim, I hope you didn’t lose any expensive luggage in that crash because your bonus is $250.”
the pilot did an excellent job. But successful water landing occur frequently (at least relatively speaking) in the military. And the majority of airline pilots built their hours in the military.
“Posted by guest, Jan 15, 2009 5:22PM
Too skilled, didn’t crash.”
If you had signed this, I would have sent you a free DB “Don’t Short Me Bro” mug.
Alas, we will never know you now.
“Posted by guest, Jan 15, 2009 5:22PM
the pilot did an excellent job. But successful water landing occur frequently (at least relatively speaking) in the military. And the majority of airline pilots built their hours in the military.”
Please identify one (1) multi engine jet passenger craft with 30+ passengers that has performed a “zero casualty” water landing in the last 40 years.
Real pilots, as the saying goes “are different from you and me”. I was having dinner with this really quiet, self-deprecating guy who I met thru my wife’s friend, probably 60 – 65 years old. Small talk, Navy stuff. Served in Vietnam, flew A-4′s, “Wild Weasels”, shot down twice, kept on going back up. Some crazy number of missions. No big deal, pass the salt. Pretty amazing guy.
Water is a good place to land. Granted a dead straight 3 lane + shoulder road with no car traffic whatsoever and ultra wide shoulders/no rails/no trees is great too but in a congested urban/semi area this is best for all.
I think you read that incorrectly EP. I think he is saying that a majority of commercial pilots flew in the military, where they made water landings.
Hey, got the latest news.., the engine is of GE!
A joint venture with Snmac.
“Water is a good place to land.”
Yeah, really not. 90-150+ knots it’s concrete unless handled PERFECTLY. If you skim a bit too hard and pitch up the nose it’s curtains, ditto if you catch it to hard and bury the nose. And, in water that temp, being knocked out is tantamount to death.
Picking a water landing often has as much to do with minimizing ground injuries as saving the passenger.
Examples of successful water landings of ANY aircraft (without ejection seats) are vanishingly small. What is unfortunate is that many of the passengers on that plane will never understand what a bullet they dodged.
Yeah life is too sweet….
Reminds me of TWA 800 in ’96 when an entire euro road-show team including CEO/CFO and bankers all went down.
It was pretty sad; even a young assoc; there was a plaque in CS/DLJ FIG conf room for years.
Layoffs suck; but having freedom to enjoy a Thur night in NYC is priceless
I like how even EP can’t follow the instructions to prevent “double posting”.
“Posted by Riskybusiness, Jan 15, 2009 5:36PM
I like how even EP can’t follow the instructions to prevent “double posting”.”
Classic, isn’t it? I’m tempted to delete it, but I think I will leave it there.
No Write Offs today. See everyone tomorrow!
haha… I like how @42 can’t read good
“90-150+ knots it’s concrete…”
Runways are also concrete.
Ticker Tape Parade for the pilot. What a hero! As an amateur pilot, I can appreciate how difficult this really was.
“Posted by guest, Jan 15, 2009 5:39PM
“90-150+ knots it’s concrete…”
Runways are also concrete.”
I’ll pay for 4 hours of C172 time for you. You can practice your water landings @65 knots.
Good luck!
A passenger of this water landing just described how hard it felt when the plane hit the water. Something like everyone hit their heads against something when it touched down.
I’m with EP in not recalling about any 100% successful water landing. There might have been one in the late 50s or early 60s in the North Atlantic, but I’ll have to dig that one up. I do recall a plane skidding off the runway at Logan and ending up in very shallow water, but that’s not the same situation at all. Or it could have been La Guardia.
Pilot last words: “It’s going to be a soft landing, folks.”
For sale: 1999 Airbus A320. Like new. A must see. Freshly washed. Cash only.
@ 46. Ticker Tape Parade for the pilot and crew. Good idea. Something for someone who actually knew what they were doing and did it well.
If you define a water landing as a controlled, if unplanned, descent onto water, as opposed to a simple crash, this is what aviators call a “ditching.” And, yes, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, there is one ditching every day in United States waters. This includes helicopters and all fixed-wing aircraft–military, air carrier, corporate, and general aviation (a group that includes private planes like the one Kennedy was flying). But there has never been a single ditching by a U.S.-flag commercial airline. Several non-U.S. airlines have experienced ditchings, with mixed results: some passengers died and some survived.
The Aviation Consumer Action Project, a Ralph Nader group, says that in an attempted water landing, a wide body jet would “shatter like a raw egg dropped on pavement, killing most if not all passengers on impact, even in calm seas with well-trained pilots and good landing trajectories.” Possibly because ditchings are both virtually nonexistent and virtually nonsurvivable, the Federal Aviation Administration does not require commercial pilots to train for them. Instead, it has various rules about how close planes must be to an airfield on land.
http://www.slate.com/id/1003275/
“This is also one of the ONLY successful jet emergency water landings I have EVER seen or heard about.”
You didn’t say anything about number of passengers. Not that it necessarily matters in making the landing more or less difficult.
A Japan Air Lines DC-8 did this at San Francisco in 1968, going into the bay 2 miles short of the runway. No one was injured, it floated, the passengers used the rafts, it was eventually brought ashore on a barge, repaired, and lived to fly another day! So yes, you can do a water landing with a jet.
Oh, come on EP. It doesn’t look that hard.
http://hareega.blogspot.com/2008/09/bimonthly-video-plane-landing-on-water.html
Think about it. Where else could you put an airliner down in New York City (aside from JFK, LGA or Teterboro) without killing passengers and people on the ground?
And this plane didn’t set down just anywhere in the Hudson, but it came down at ~57th Street, and the plane drifted right through the heart of the Hudson River ferry crossings.
Imagine, one minute you are taking off from LGA, 6 minutes later you are standing on an aircraft wing in the middle of the Hudson, and – what – 15 mins after that you are on the West Side Highway?
Talk about the weirdest half hour of your life…
More on the DC-8 in SF Bay in 1968. 107 passengers, no fatalities.
http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19681122-0
The market closed up, get more geese!
pilots resume. this is who you want behind the wheel
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:tpHOou4HNEgJ:safetyreliability.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Sullenberger_Profile.317143407.doc+sullenberger+pilot&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=8&gl=ca
@48: La guardia
“Posted by guest, Jan 15, 2009 5:39PM
“90-150+ knots it’s concrete…”
Runways are also concrete.”
I’ll pay for 4 hours of C172 time for you. You can practice your water landings @65 knots.
Why pay someone else to teach me, EP, when it sounds like you’ve got the skills?
Seriously, though, I already had an enormous crush on EP before knowing she was a pilot. Now the urge to meet this renaissance woman is just overwhelming.
Completely off topic, but did anyone see this on cnbc?
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/cnbc-denies-banning-fake-steve-jobs-defends-jim-goldman
@ More on the DC-8 in SF Bay in 1968. 107 passengers, no fatalities.
Still fail. That was outside her 40 year window.
The market closed up, get more geese!
This sounds like an EP Ponzi scheme.
Remember Flight 961, Ethipian Airlines in 1996. It was hijacked in flight, crash landed off the coast of Madagascar. The video is unbelievable.
Some 125 people died out of 175. Horrible tragedy. Frankly, I think 50 people surviving is a miracle. All of them doing so today is even more so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ditching
On 16 January 2002, Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 (a Boeing 737) successfully ditched into the Bengawan Solo River near Yogyakarta, Java Island after experiencing a twin engine flameout during heavy precipitation and hail. The pilots tried to restart the engines several times before taking the decision to ditch the aircraft. Of the 60 occupants, one, a flight attendant, was killed. The survival rate was 98%.[7] Photographs taken shortly after evacuation show that the plane came to rest in knee-deep water.[8]
Not quite 100%, but close.
Anybody got the numbers for first year pilots (water landing qualified)?
Losers. Lets see them develop innovative value added debt structuring solutions that allow the client to optimise their portfolio while minimising counterparty risk across vertical functions. And breaking down the cross business silos!
@45:
“Runways are also concrete.”
Which is why airplanes use tires when landing on them.
@62- and not to forget another extremely heroic person that day in 1982 – Arland Williams
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arland_D._Williams_Jr.
@24 – my old man was a pilot then an instructor; his catchphrase
“If it’s not boeing I’m not going”
What really sucks is that this is one of the few relatively new planes USAirways has. Back to the crappy ones with duct tape on the seats and no hangers in First Class.
US Airways pilots are good at crash landings, perhaps because they seem to have the most practice. I was on one that landed with no front gear down. At the end when we got off the plane, the nose was right on the center stripe.
tell me where to send the money. these guys done great. good news for a change.
Re 75:
Me too.
@17 — LOL. Once I knew everyone was okay I started wondering about the geese; they must wish they were with AFLAC
@69 – hilarious
@59 – Hell yeah! BOILER UP!!!
EP @34- Check the IPs XX.1X6.X4.XX. If possible please give the mug to Cluz to the O at the next DB happy hour.
Just remember Cluz, there isn’t a man, woman, or child who doesn’t enjoy a refreshing beverage.
SPODE
It’s cute that EP acts like an expert on everything. I buy it when she tries on finance-related stuff, but I’m definitely shorting her knowledge of airplanes.
“Maintaining the energy to get where you want to be and then bleeding it off before landing without stalling the nose into the drink is just a gargantuan accomplishment.”
Really? You expect us to buy that?
Long EP Finance, Short EP Aviation
Glad all the passengers are safe
WHY IS EP BEING SO SWEET ABOUT AIRPLANES? Seriously EP you’re a blogger, take it easy.
i love the ep had to turn this into her knowledge of planes.
I am sort of glad she’s a pilot. We get a lot more color on Schenker and US AIR here than anywhere else.
She pulled the nowater landings fact right out of the air. Im sold.
I’m long EP long Girl.
I dig her aviation knowledge, too. Mile high club w EP at the stick? Thrilling.
I’ll leave the mechanics of that to EP.
hate to tell you but she is dead-on with the crash landing issue. too little energy = stall and nose down crash everyone dies. too much energy = very hard crash landing everyone dies. the challenge is to leave it right on the knifes edge of stall much more than during a real landing. remember, velocity gets squared in the energy calculation. dropping it even a little is a big help. the high energy problem isnt an issue when landing with gear down. her pilot-fu is strong. here and in the other aviation comments [mustique schrenker] i have seen her make. i totally buy her with a commercial at least. i bet i know how many hours the ‘ep not a pilot’ commentators have too. keep up the good work, ep!
–out of work pilot
EP is a dude. I’ll bet anything.
I agree with this grass roots efforts. Forget the paypal fundraiser, Chelsey B. Sullenberger deserves to be awarded the junior Senate seat of New York.
Everyone start emailing Gov Paterson, quick!
@87: Hard to work theory against her NPR interview.
Since no one died, I think it’s appropriate to note that getting from LGA to west mid-town in 3 minutes is pretty damn good. Sure, you arrive a little worse for wear, but still….
Dittos, 86. I guess the guys who think EP isn’t a pilot are of the same breed as the one who confused Marcus’ Malibu for a PC-12. Stick to comps, boys.
87: I’ll take that bet. What are you putting up?
How long until he’s flying Gate’s or Buffet’s private jet? Successfully ditch a commercial jet and pass go to the highest bidder. He deserves every penny he is paid and US Airways is not paying enough.
Apparently he was the last one to leave the plane as well. I think we have found Pandit’s replacement.
@ 74 No hangers in First Class? Sucks to be you, man.
@87
I’m with you also. EP is a dude.
@ 81 & 82… I hope you get jobs soon!
-Insert Kathy Griffin New Years quote here-
I love the morons who pontificate on ep gender and havent heard her radio interview. hah!
Are you looking to build hours, EP? I’m seriously looking for an instructor, and can’t imagine a more entertaining one…
I disagree.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHXA4_O-MXM
Aunt Entity
I want to meet the pilot’s tailor. The alterations needed to accommodate his balls must be tough.
100, bitches.
@10 here and @23 to answer your question:
I have 130 hours total in a combination of Piper Warrior, Katana, CE-172, CE-152.
I would have my private but my practical got weathered right before i left to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I majored in Aviation Business and now successfully broker private jet charter. I was just breaking EP’s chops; in truth, i thought it was an excellent commentary.
JB
Anyone else think it’s hilarious that the first class passengers were hanging out on the raft while the plebs in back had to tough it out on the wing?
Thank god we still fly first in my group. Even though in case of a crash, you’re better off in the back of the plane, I’d rather not face the embarrassment of being found stuffed into a 18 inch wide seat with 32 inches of pitch.
Do Jews float?
According to CNBC, Dylan Ratigan was actually the pilot and he is dreamy.
Interesting week in the annals of Purdue aviators.
For the record, short Schrenker, long Sullenberger.
@97
That was a poor piece of reporting in many ways. Most importantly the reporter acknowledged not knowing who EP really was. All she offered was a female voice, kind of wimpy for someone who claims to work in private equity and an experienced pilot, on the line. The reporter did interview a friend of “hers” from Chicago, who also claims to be a pilot and met EP face to face. The other 2 character witnesses were a blogger who got fired from GS for blogging, and Elizabeth Spiers who did nothing to affirm EP’s true line of work.
EP may turn out to be woman after all. But “her” credibility is still to be questioned. EP likes to hide in many closets, time to come out.
@98
EP hasn’t claimed to have an instructor license, yet.
@101 – wouldn’t you have had the time during and since college to get your license? What happened?
that reminds me of that story when I saved the pitch books from some coffee spilling on the table… life and death situation… but unlike this pilot, I got laid off anyway…
Dylan Ratigan is the dreamiest!!
@85:
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001212X18632&key=1
@106 VOL? What happened to your login? HAH!
@87 here. Was a joke all you numnuts.
I call shenanigans.
Heard Madoff was in First Class trying to escape. The Geese worked for the SEC. Chris Cox’s first success.
shenanigans
Time to allow hunting of the non-migratory geese on the Hudson waterfront with airguns and bow & arrow. Like the old, they should be down south this time of year.
I was brokering charter before i even went to college. I really enjoy the business end of aviation and the first thing you learn is charter is a 24/7 job.
That said, i haven’t flown in a couple years now and i miss it. I miss it like whoa.
Craziest airplane survival story I’ve heard was some Western European flight that went down in the 1970′s. They did a whole Discovery channel documentary on it. Only one person (a flight attendant survived), but it was ridiculous that any one made it out given that the plane went into freefall at 30,000 feet! Apparently her surviving had to do with the plane falling in a helicopter motion, them hitting a steep enough mountainside to avoid smashing straight into the Earth, and an assload of sheer luck.
First DealBook ripping off Bess and now WSJ is being inspired by EP: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123205611103787217.html
“For the first time in 50 years of commercial jet flight, the pilots of US Airways Flight 1549 successfully executed one of the most technically challenging maneuvers, landing a jetliner on water without fatalities.”
hell yeah man come on guys, WHERE IN THE WORLD in the last 20 years have you seen a plane land perfectly where there are no casualties, let alone in the goddman hudson river. quote a testimate if you ask me..only in new york the city that i still love
ummm…hate to break it to you guys, but for those of you that know something about aircraft, it is fairly obvious, a pilot she ain’t (and didn’t they have an interview with her on NPR recently about a book deal or some such? – but I digress..) Regardless, as a USAF vet I am proud to have a guy like this in our midst!!!!!
Larry King reports that the pilot didn’t deplane until he was sure that all passengers were safely off first. Contrast that behavior with that of most CEOs…where do we start? My experience at Lehman Brothers…Fuld would have walked on the backs of his underlings to get off the f-ing plane. And they would have let him… .
@90 lmao
Why does everyone think the pilot is such a hero? He flew into a bunch of geese – seems like something he should have avoided
um…saving hundreds of lives is the new killing it?
god bless EP for her eloquence, empathy, and very peculiar knowledge base. i am truly inspired by all of this.
-JE
EP & Bess,
You know my ip address so you can find my work # tomorrow on BB, not killing it so can only add a few bones.
the letter after p
@68 Garuda 421 was a perfect descent into the river. The fatality occurred after; a flight attendent drowned. Also was a tough landing because that river was much narrower and there was a bridge much closer to the point where the pilot put the plane down. There are a couple of pictures floating on the net somewhere of that incident. US Airways, Garuda and JAL all had perfect descents.
Okay EP
May 9 1978
I was watching the news of the crash in a motel bar, when in walked two people in hospital gowns – they were survivers – they didn’t have to buy any drinks that night
=========================
(Studio) Govt. investigators’ probe into reasons for crash into bay of National Airlines jet upon attempted landing at Pensacola, Florida, reported.
REPORTER: Harry Reasoner
(Pensacola Bay, Florida) Details of National Airlines jet crash into Escambia Bay given. [Survivor James RAY - describes experience.] Rescue operations by local vessels, particularly by passing barge, detailed. [Tugboat captain Glen McDONALD - describes rescue operations by barge.] [Mate Bill KENNEY - describes rescue.] Impt. of barge to survival of passengers detailed; Federal Aviation Administration approval for National flight to dispense with carrying life rafts, despite route from Miami to New Orleans over Gulf of Mexico, noted. Other details with regard to crash and reasons for it given.
REPORTER: David Snell (WLA newstape)
(Studio) Statement of National Trans. Safety Board chairperson Jim King, concerning lack of life rafts on National flight, made to reporter Bob Sirkin reported.
REPORTER: Harry Reasoner
@106 – my bet is the EP is actually Elizabeth Spiers….
Frankly I think it is clear that the Geese hate freedom.
EP – Nice. In these nutty times, we NEED a human touch in our media. Too often, though, it’s sappy and pathetic (like the reporting on the inauguration circus). Very nice work.
The geese were wearing headscarves and burka’s, that’s effing terrorism folks
@129-my bet is that you are actually Britney Spears
@131 – I couldn’t agree more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b2kJWLvVic
Noah Drake
Link for the NPR interview of EP ? Cant find it.
@133, no way that 129 is B.S., Even B.S. has more class and quality then 129 has.
Another EP / Elizibeth Spiers connection.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/20/AR2007072002139_pf.html
Very similar writing style, and both articles discuss some technical details of flying.
Raising a couple grand for this dude would be swell but what’s even better is that he gets to go to bed tonight knowing that for the rest of his life and ever after, he will be be know as a bad ass MFing HERO.
@136-good point. maybe 129 is KFed?
@138… Seconded…
@ 137
great piece of evidence, though a little too facile and not loquacious enough to be EP
@139, in this fucked up world, it has a higher probability then we expect… if we knew reality…
@143, Well Said… now may I have another?
AGAIN! You fucks are driving me nuts with this speculation. FUUUUUUUCK!
http://www.elizabethspiers.com/about.html
SPODE
For all of you bankers and u.s. presidents out there, today’s events are a shining example of the benefits of knowing how to do your job.
@103 yes they do,,,do aholes have a brain,,,you can probably answer that one..
@103 yes they do,,,do aholes have a brain,,,you can probably answer that one..
Get him a shotgun, appropriate for hunting geese, inscribed “Any landing you can swim away from is a good landing.”
@149
I’d be willing to throw in part of my severance “package” for that.
I am the CEO of a hedge fund. What is a commercial flight?
@ 145
don’t worry, Mr. ‘tableware tech’, tis not her… though mentees to her EPizzle may be
I hear they were former Lehman’s pilots.
It was a bona fide miracle.
Given there were no fatalities (thank god) I expected to see some foie gois references …
The pilot was inspired by Obama. While crashlanding he was thinking: ‘yes we can, yes we can….’ and lo and behold: a miracle!
These guys had The Right Stuff.
http://thedailybail.squarespace.com/
Today we are soft launching The Daily Bail…a bailout news, opinion & analysis site. In more detail we are a news aggregation source for all stories related in any way to the institutionally dysfunctional, painfully inept and completely counter-productive taxpayer bailout of failed people, ideas, businesses, pensions, municipalities, states and ultimately, we fear, of our federal government.
The site is not complete but is fully functional and so we have decided to launch now.
For those interested, please paste and goto ‘www.thedailybail.squarespace.com’
In a few days we will lose the ‘.squarespace’ tag.
Thanks again for allowing us to post this and I hope some dealbreaker readers will take the time to stop by.
dailybail
@40 EP, how many water landings have you been on?
154 – bullshit. All the idiots ‘Thanking God’ for this are just that, idiots.
Who to thank? Well, gee. The most obvious people would be the pilot and first officer. Stewards & Stewardesses. Ferry captains also. Other passengers for obeying instructions and not panicking. Perhaps the Airbus engineer who ensured the plane met the required specs for birdstrike and airframe stability. Then, maybe, the aviation authority that came up with those specs.
There’s a whole bunch of real people to thank before you get to imaginary friends like a god. Grow up and pony up for the tickertape parade / goose shooting gun / whatever else any of these people want.
EP is a very clever writer. He/She incorporated both masculine and feminine devices in all the writings.
Or maybe EP is g-y (NOT derogatory), in real life, which explains all that.
- Devoted EP reader.
“Prior to Gawker, [Elizabeth] Spiers was a buy-side financial analyst focusing on small cap tech equities and (prior to that) early stage venture capital.”
!!!!!
To the poster above about the hijacked plane that was ditched in the Indian ocean that shows how bad a water landing can be – the plane splinters to pieces as its wing hits the water first. Scary shit.
Sully should’ve been piloting Oceanic 815.
EP and the rest of you pilots, a question:
Surely this guy had mad skills and great cojones. My hat is literally and metaphysically doffed to him. But the NYT reported today that they were within sight of a runway of a small airport in New Jersey, and that’s where LaGuardia’s ATControllers were telling them to go. Why wouldn’t that have been a better choice (assuming the plane could, of course, actually get there) than ditching in seriously cold water on a frigid day? I haven’t seen any further description of this, so if y’all have more details, feel free to spill.
@164…too great of a risk of ground crash in heavily populated area…both engines were reportedly out which means the plane was gliding – not sure it could’ve glided to Teterboro.
That and Hank Paulson said no go on Teterboro since GS parks its Gulfstreams there.
@164 go away
@164 – plus he cleared the GWB by 900 feet. What if he had clipped the wires and taken the bridge out?
164 Check a map. They sent him to Teterboro cause it was a straight path, but T is not in fact close enough to glide to from the point he began having trouble.
Maybe I’m getting sentimental, but the perfect outcome here really lifted my spirits. An antidote to all the bad news lately. The whole episode – pilot skill, courage of the passengers, all the rescue people just slipping fast into high gear and running on adrenaline like energetic New Yorkers always do – was really inspiring. To hear the police, the ferry crews, just regular guys with coarse accents talking very humbly about their heroism was just wonderful.
I’m gonna be mad if someone responds to 167 by saying “That would actually be good – NJ people would then have to stay in NJ, where they belong” Jersey Guy
“That would actually be good – NJ people would then have to stay in NJ, where they belong”
Fucking bridge and tunnel crowd.
Long live Sully!
170 Yr dead Jersey Guy
@168 – I’m totally with you. The whole thing is so unbelievable. Someone was on their side yesterday. And those pilots are rockstars. They will probably never have to buy another drink at a bar again. God knows I’d buy a round if I saw them.
146 – go back to sorting mail on the 24th floor.
160 – No one gives two rats asses about your elementary school philosophy.
what happens to all the passengers belongings?
Does anyone wonder what the pilots were thinking when they were trying to land? I mean I’m sure they were hoping for the best but they had no idea they weren’t going to crash. That had to be the most ridiculous feeling ever.
A real no-bullshit resume:
http://safetyreliability.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/Sullenberger_Profile.317143407.doc
@164 Teterboro was probably as close as the crash site as the crow flies, assuming that the problem started at 4000 feet near Bronx Zoo. But the pilot would have had to first set a south course, then west then north because the Teterboro runways are in a north/south configuration. That would probably double the flying distance. Also ditching in the Hudson involved 1 turn as opposed to 3 turns.
175 I think that pilots are by nature cool under fire and part of maintaining that coolness is focusing on the task at hand rather than the range of potential outcomes. Which can drive you crazy. Sort of like some traders I’ve seen.
@164 and 177… Although NY Air Traffic Control directed him to Teterboro, the pilot in command is always the ultimate authority and decision maker in an emergency, and is also the ONLY one who can evaluate the best option for trying to land the aircraft and save souls on-board and on the ground. Plus there is something else that has not been reported much, if at all — by choosing to attempt a water ditching, the pilot removed much of the risk of a post-impact fire. The aircraft had at least enough fuel to fly to Charlotte with virtually no time to dump fuel before landing — a failed attempt to land at Teterboro would almost certainly have resulted in a post-impact fire, threatening the safety of those on the aircraft and at the site of impact. And when you are low and slow, the turns needed to get to Teterboro would have bled off lots of airspeed and altitude, making an attempted landing at Teterboro much more risky than trying to set the aircraft down in the river. What makes it all the more remarkable is that the pilot only had a few seconds to evaluate his circumstances and options and then commit to a landing plan. Courage is grace under pressure.
@164 here, thanks to the rational people, particularly @165 and 179. Good enough for me. As for you, @166, I’d tell you to bite me, but that sore on your lip is too scary. Go back to walking Dick Fuld’s dog.
@179, best comment so far. Although scary, what a great way to end the week. We can all learn and appreciate a lot from this episode.
Can’t wait to hear the pilot’s side of the story.
@179
Well said. I can’t think of a better qualified captain to accomplish what he did yesterday. He’s also a Certified Flight Instructor – Glider. And gliding is what he did after he lost the engines.
You know what is real legit? He was Blue Force Mission Commander for Red Flag at Nellis — that is as solid as you can get, essentially he was in charge of US forces in a live-fire exercise in a full out air war against another superpower.
Some part of me can’t help but view this as a little thumb in Taleb’s eye.
“Oh, what will you do if a whole flock of geese flies into both your engines?”
“Well, I’ll make the safest landing I possibly can, I guess.”
“NONSENSE, you shouldn’t even be flying you overconfident philistine!”