Recorders support Sullenberger’s account

[CommunityEditor]

NEW YORK — As Capt. Brittany Catanzaro eased her commuter ferry, the Thomas Kean, into the Hudson River, she saw an eye-popping sight: a US Airways jet, bobbing on the tide.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said the 20-year-old, a captain for just five months. “But we train for man-overboard situations. Twice a month. And I knew what we had to do.”

The ferries that ply the waters between New York and New Jersey were among the first rescue craft on the scene Thursday when Flight 1549 splashed down after engine failure. The fast actions of their crews, combined with the heroic efforts of emergency responders, produced an amazing result: All 155 people on board were pulled to safety.

From the initial cry of “man overboard!” it took only a few minutes for the first boat to arrive at the jet’s side. Captains said they approached cautiously to avoid swamping the jet and sending the frightened passengers standing on its wing into the freezing water.

Some passengers let out cheers when the Thomas Jefferson ferry pulled up, the first of 14 vessels to render aid.

“We had to pull an elderly woman out of a raft in a sling. She was crying. ... People were panicking. They said, ‘Hurry up, hurry up,’” Capt. Vincent Lombardi said. “We gave them the jackets off our backs.”

Lombardi’s crew plucked 56 passengers from the jet’s wing and life rafts. Wide-eyed ferry passengers, their evening commute disrupted, helped out, tossing life jackets and ropes to the crash victims below.

Catanzaro’s boat picked up 24 people.

The fire department in New York got the first emergency call at 3:31 p.m. and was on the scene in less than five minutes. Across the river, Weehawken, New Jersey, police, firefighters and emergency medical crews boarded ferries awaiting rush hour and headed to the plane, minutes after the pilot guided the jet into the water.

New York City police detectives John McKenna and James Coll, of the department’s Emergency Services Unit, commandeered a sightseeing ferry at 42nd Street.

As they arrived at the sinking fuselage, Sgt. Michael McGuinness and Detective Sean Mulcahy tied ropes around themselves that were also tied to their colleagues. They stayed on board as McKenna and Coll entered the plane to rescue four other passengers still inside.

High above, divers Michael Delaney and Robert Rodriguez of the New York Police Department dropped from a helicopter into the water. From the air, Delaney said, “it all looked very orderly. The plane’s crew appeared to do a great job.”

Both divers spotted a woman in the water, hanging onto the side of a ferry boat and “frightened out of her mind,” Rodriguez said. “She’s very lethargic.”

“I see panic out of this woman,” Rodriguez said. “She’s very cold, so she’s unable to climb up.”

The two pulled another female passenger from the water as other passengers sat calmly on the plane’s flotation devices, waiting to board the ferries clustered nearby.

Both divers climbed onto the wing and entered the plane, and confirmed everyone was off.

One victim suffered two broken legs, a paramedic said, but there were no other reports of serious injuries. Fire officials said at least half the people on board were evaluated for hypothermia, bruises and other minor injuries.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Gov. David Paterson heaped praise on the rescue effort.

“They train for these kinds of emergencies, and you saw it in action,” Bloomberg said. “Because of their fast brave work, we think that contributed to the fact that it looks like everybody is safe.”

Paterson said it was a miracle.

“I think that in simplicity, this is really a potential tragedy that may have become one of the most spectacular days in the history of New York City’s agencies,” he said.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_hudson_riverrescue_011609/

[CommunityEditor]

The US Airways pilot who landed his disabled jetliner in the Hudson River shortly after taking off from a New York City airport in which all 155 on board escaped safely before the plane sank is an Air Force Academy graduate and a former F-4 pilot.

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger flew F-4 Phantoms for the Air Force from 1973-80 after he graduated from the Air Force Academy, according to a resume posted on the Web site of the company he founded, Safety Reliability Methods Inc.

He was a flight leader and instructor as well as a Blue Force mission commander in Red Flag exercises at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., according to his resume.

Right after he left the Air Force, Sullenberger started his career with the airline now known as US Airways, where he has spent the past 29 years, according to his resume. He now lives in Danville, Calif., with his wife, according to a Reuters report.

Flight 1549 went down minutes after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, N.C., splashing into the river near 48th Street in midtown Manhattan — one of the busiest and most closely watched stretches of the river.

“There were eyewitness reports the plane may have flown into a flock of birds,” Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said. “Right now we don’t have any indication this was anything other than an accident.”

New York Gov. David Paterson called it “a miracle on the Hudson.” New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an experienced pilot, said Sullenberger “did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure everybody got out.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Norton Schwartz also praised Sullenberger in a statement released Friday:

"His Air Force is proud. Not only did he show remarkable airmanship, but also the commitment of being the captain of his ship."

Passenger Jeff Kolodjay of Norwalk, Conn., said he heard an explosion two or three minutes into the flight, looked out the left side of the Airbus A320 and saw one of the engines on fire.

“The captain said, `Brace for impact because we’re going down,’ ” Kolodjay said. He said passengers put their heads in their laps and started praying. He said the plane hit the water pretty hard, but he was fine.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/01/airforce_ex_pilot_hudson_011509w/

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh23/aliceamm/Military%20Times/011509_planecrash1_800.jpg
EDOUARD H.R. GLUCK / ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Airbus 320 US Airways aircraft that went down in the Hudson
River is seen in New York.

[CommunityEditor]

NEW YORK — Everything about the fate of Flight 1549 seemed like a million-to-1 shot — a flock of birds crossing a jetliner’s path and taking out both engines, a safe landing in the Hudson River by a former fighter pilot.

As amazement about the “miracle on the Hudson” turned to questions, a team of 20 National Transportation Safety Board investigators began looking into how Thursday’s bizarre near-disaster happened.

The pilot, a former Air Force fighter pilot, guided the hobbled US Airways jetliner over New York City and into the frigid river, with an impact one passenger described as little worse than a rear-end collision. All 155 on board were pulled to safety as the plane slowly sank.

US Airways chief executive Doug Parker said in a statement it was “premature to speculate about the cause.” Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said there was no immediate indication the incident was “anything other than an accident.”

It was a chain of improbability. Birds tangle with airplanes regularly but rarely bring down commercial aircraft. Jet engines sometimes fail — but both at once? Pilots train for a range of emergencies, but few, if any, have ever successfully ditched a jet in one of the nation’s busiest waterways without any life-threatening injuries.

“We had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson,” Gov. David Paterson said.

If the accident was hard to imagine, so was the result: Besides one victim with two broken legs, there were no other reports of serious injuries to the 155 people aboard.

“You’re happy to be alive, really,” 23-year-old passenger Bill Zuhoski said.

US Airways Airbus A320, bound for Charlotte, N.C., took off from LaGuardia Airport at 3:26 p.m. Less than a minute later, the pilot reported a “double bird strike” and said he needed to return to LaGuardia, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Church said the controller told the pilot to divert to an airport in nearby Teterboro, N.J. It was not clear why the pilot, identified as Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III of Danville, Calif., did not land there and headed for the Hudson instead.

Passengers quickly realized something was terrifyingly wrong.

“I heard an explosion, and I saw flames coming from the left wing, and I thought, ‘This isn’t good,’” said Dave Sanderson, 47, who was heading home to Charlotte from a business trip. “Then it was just controlled chaos. People started running up the aisle. People were getting shoved out of the way.”

Then came an ominous warning from the captain: “Brace for impact because we’re going down,” according to passenger Jeff Kolodjay, 31.

Some passengers prayed. Vallie Collins, 37, tapped out a text message to her husband, Steve: “My plane is crashing.” For a desperate half-hour, he was unable to get in touch with her to learn that she had survived.

Onshore, from streets and office windows, witnesses watched the plane steadily descend off roughly 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.

“I just thought, ‘Why is it so low?’ And, splash, it hit the water,” said Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The Associated Press, who watched the water landing from the news organization’s high-rise office.

The 150 passengers and five crew members were forced to escape as the plane quickly became submerged up to its windows in 36-degree water. Dozens stood on the aircraft’s wings on a 20-degree day, one of the coldest of the winter, as commuter ferries and Coast Guard vessels converged to rescue them.

One ferry, the Thomas Jefferson of the company NY Waterway, arrived within minutes. Riders grabbed life vests and rope and tossed them to plane passengers in the water.

“They were cheering when we pulled up,” Capt. Vincent Lombardi. “People were panicking. They said, ‘Hurry up! Hurry up!’”

Two police scuba divers said they pulled a woman from a lifeboat “frightened out of her mind” and lethargic from hypothermia. Helen Rodriguez, a paramedic who was among the first to arrive at the scene, said she saw one woman with two broken legs.

Paramedics treated at least 78 patients, many for hypothermia, bruises and other minor injuries, fire officials said. Some of the shivering survivors were swaddled in blankets, their feet and legs soaked.

Hours later, some passengers had already boarded new flights and were heading to their original destinations.

Carl Bazarian, of Amelia Island, Fla., said he wasn’t scared to get back onto a plane so soon after the river landing because he went back to LaGuardia airport with a group of passengers he met during the rescue.

“We weren’t scared, because we were with each other, holding hands and hugging,” he said, talking by cell phone early Friday morning from Charlotte, N.C., where he had a layover on his way to Florida. “I know them now, so well. The chemistry was incredible.”

The downed jetliner initially remained afloat but sank slowly as it drifted downriver. Gradually, only about half of the tail fin and rudder were above water. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the aircraft finally wound up near Battery Park, at the lower tip of Manhattan and about four miles from where the pilot ditched it.

An official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still ongoing identified the pilot as Sullenberger. A woman answered and hung up when the AP asked to speak with Sullenberger’s family in Danville.

Sullenberger, 57, has flown for US Airways for 29 years. He also runs a safety consulting firm.

From 1990 to 2007, there were nearly 80,000 reported incidents of birds striking nonmilitary aircraft, about one strike for every 10,000 flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Agriculture.

The Hudson accident took place almost exactly 27 years after an Air Florida plane bound for Tampa crashed into the Potomac River just after takeoff from Washington National Airport, killing 78 people. Five people on that flight survived.

On Dec. 20, a Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and slid into a snowy field at Denver International Airport, injuring 38 people. That was the first major crash of a commercial airliner in the United States since Aug. 27, 2006, when 49 people were killed after a Comair jetliner took off from a Lexington, Ky., runway that was too short.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_crashinvestigation_011609/

[CommunityEditor]

NEW YORK — The black box recorders recovered from the US Airways jetliner that splashed down in the Hudson River captured thumping sounds, the sudden loss of engine power and the pilot’s calm emergency call, evidence that seems to back up the crew’s account of hitting a flock of birds shortly after takeoff.

The National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB, gave an account of its interview with the pilot, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, and dispatches from the cockpit voice recorder emerged over the weekend.

Meanwhile, in snowy weather Sunday night, tugboats pulled the barge carrying the Airbus A320 from a seawall a few blocks from the World Trade Center site on a 90-minute trip to the Weeks Marina in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Investigators on Monday want to look more closely at the cockpit, the attached right engine, and the interior of the cabin, said safety board member Kitty Higgins.

The dispatches on the cockpit voice recorder were described as “a very calm, collected exercise,” veteran safety board investigator Robert Benzon said Sunday. Higgins added: “It was very matter of fact.”

Sullenberger, credited with helping save the lives of all 155 people aboard Thursday, reported that the plane had hit birds and lost both engines shortly after investigators heard “the sound of thumps and a rapid decrease in engine sounds,” Higgins said.

Sullenberger then discussed airport landing sites before deciding to attempt a river landing, she said. Ninety seconds before ditching the plane, he told passengers “brace for impact” and informed controllers “they will be in the Hudson River,” Higgins said.

The pilot, who has not publicly talked about the crash, canceled what was to be his first interview Monday, on NBC’s “Today” show. The show said it would interview Sullenberger in a couple of days.

Stephen Bradford, president of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, said he asked Sullenberger not to talk to the media because the pilots association has “interested party” status with the NTSB, which allows it to participate in the investigation.

“If the NTSB perceives that we are in any way compromising the objectivity of the investigation by innocuously releasing information to the media, our status will be rescinded and we will be unable to help determine the causal factors leading up to this very positive and well-documented outcome,” he said.

Instead, Sullenberger released a statement through a family spokesperson. “The Sullenbergers continue to thank their many well-wishers for the incredible outpouring of support,” it said. The pilot was invited to attend President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration on Tuesday, according to the mayor of his hometown, Danville, California.

Also Monday, the entire crew — Sullenberger, first officer and co-pilot Jeff Skiles, and flight attendants Sheila Dail, Doreen Welsh and Donna Dent — said in a joint statement they want the media to “respect their desire to refrain from participating in interviews until further notice” while the safety board investigates.

The crew said they “wish to offer their sincere thanks and appreciation for the overwhelming support, praise and well wishes they have received from the public around the world since the events of last Thursday.”

They said they are willing to do media interviews “when the time is right.”

Investigators have seen significant damage to the tail and to compartments at the bottom of the plane that opened on impact. The right engine was severely dented but its fan blades were intact, Benzon said.

The search for the plane’s missing left engine was suspended until Tuesday because ice floes in the river make it too dangerous to put divers or special sonar equipment in the water, Higgins said.

In Washington, safety board spokesman Peter Knudson said preliminary indications from radar data of the plane’s takeoff Thursday from LaGuardia Airport “did not show any targets” that might be birds. But investigators will keep looking, he said.

“We are going to go and get all the electronic data necessary to get a complete picture of what was on his screen. It’s possible there was more being displayed than we initially understood. We just don’t know definitively at this point — we don’t know exactly what was shown on that radar screen,” Knudson said.

Higgins heaped praise on Sullenberger and the flight crew, noting they all had 20 or more years experience and were trained to do their jobs.

“Miracles happen because a lot of everyday things happen for years and years and years,” she said. “These people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it and as a result, nobody lost their life.”

Benzon said the probe may ultimately focus more on what went right than what went wrong Thursday. “This accident and this investigation are going to be studied for years and years and years,” he said. “Why did everything work so well?

“We need to know that so we can apply it to other phases of aviation, other aircraft, perhaps newer aircraft. It’s going to be fun.”

The area where the plane was moored in New York was closed to the public Sunday, but before it was moved it attracted hundreds of people who snapped pictures of the plane wreckage.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_sullenberger_inauguration_011909/