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Plane Down in ICY Hudson River, everyone saved!

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Birds sucked into engines of US Airways plane crashed into the Hudson River. Boats in the area were first responders and that accounts for the people being saved in frigid rapid waters.

IMG_4132Planeinriver.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Downed plane was jolted by the engines stopping and one engine caught fire. People were thrown against the top of the plane and a lot of people were bloodied. The pilot brilliantly directed the plane to the river and at the speed the water is hard like a runway and the wheels were up so the friction slowed it down and the plane didn't break up. It landed miraculously near the ferry terminals!!!!

The private commerce ferries immediately changed course to get the passengers who were on the wings. Soon it started to sink. Helicopters dropped divers but no one was found in the river. It seems everyone is accounted for, although divers are still going down. The colder water at 20 degrees F makes the water a harder surface and so safer.

The folk are walking some are bruised are wrapped in blankets and on way to hospitals. What's amazing is that New Yorkers, known to be amongst the most brusk, responded even before the official rescue teams arrived. That's a great spirit to see. The plane is still floating. It's been roped by tugs and hopefully it wont be lost.

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Three minutes into the flight, US 1549 an airbus 320, to Chalrotte N. California from Le Guardia New York, the pilot announced, "Prepare for impact!". The plane veered round and made it phenomenally to a safe landing in the Hudson River. The amazing thing is that the wing tips didn't get caught in the water and make the plane cartwheel!

Passengers are arriving at the hospital with car accident level injuries.

Be safe everyone for 2009. I wish sustenance, health and peace to all! As humans we take a lot for granted. Here things worked but it does remind us how fragile we are and how much we should respect humanity. Without that, what do we have? Nothing but accumulated property!

Unfortunately, such miracles are not translatable to solve all the problems we face, but at least, in one tiny way people helped one another.

Asher
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
I have been nailed to the front of my TV for the past 40 minutes watching CNN cover this incident live. It is truly amazing. As a child, I have been on a jet plane with my father which ran into a flock of birds upon departure and one engine has shut down. The pilot has set the plane safely back on ground, but the 5 minutes in between were some of the most frightening ones I’ve had in my life. I am so glad that no one was hurt although 4 people are taken into hospital for hypothermia, I heard. The pilots are real heroes, it seems to be almost a miracle that the plane did not break upon landing on water. If that did happen, it would sink immediately and cause the loss of almost all lives. Also, it did not land on any populated areas which has saved even more lives. A big disaster has been averted today!

Regards,
 

John Angulat

pro member
The pilot undoubtedly deserves our nation's higest civilian honor - the Medal of Freedom.
What he accomplished in 3 minutes not only saved the lives of his passengers and crew, but saved the lives of potentially thousands on the ground. A commercial jetliner w/o power has the glidepath of a brick. To muscle that brick, bank left, then level off and gently lay her down...brilliant piloting.

Sorry Asher, no photos. The plane went down on Manhattan's West side. I work on the East side in Queens, even with 71st Street. It went in the river at 48th Street and by the time I crossed Manhattan it had drifted South to around 21st Street. West Side Highway was closed by then.

update: here's our hero: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/01/15/2009-01-15_us_airways_airplane_crashes_in_hudson_ri.html
 

Jeff Donovan

New member
The pilot undoubtedly deserves our nation's higest civilian honor - the Medal of Freedom.
What he accomplished in 3 minutes not only saved the lives of his passengers and crew, but saved the lives of potentially thousands on the ground. A commercial jetliner w/o power has the glidepath of a brick. To muscle that brick, bank left, then level off and gently lay her down...brilliant piloting.

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I agree. Words can't describe the job the pilots did in somehow landing that plane in ice-cold water (32.5 degrees F) without breaking it apart. Huge kudos go out to the ferry boat captains, who had their boats on the scene pulling passengers off the wing within minutes of the crash.

I can't think of another time when a pilot had to put a full jetliner into the water and every single person on board lived to tell the tale.
 
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