A Guide to the Hudson Plane Crash
A Profile of the Incident Involving US Airways Flight 1549
On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport, New York City at 3:26pm. The Airbus A320 was carrying 150 passengers and 5 crew members.
The Ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River
First Officer Jeffrey Skiles flew the plan at the beginning of the flight, and was the first crew member to notice the flock of birds that was approaching the plane. Almost immediately afterwards, the cockpit's windscreen was covered in birds and both of the aircraft's engines lost power.
At this point, the plane's captain, Chesley Sullenberger took control of the aircraft, whilst Skiles tired to revive the aircraft's power and started to go through an emergency landing procedure checklist.
Sullenberger contacted air traffic control and informed them of the collision with the flock of birds and of the loss of power from the engines. Passenger's from the flight have reported that they smelt fuel in the cabin.
The flight path of the plane shows that it rose a further 3000ft before beginning its descent. The original plan for the emergency landing was to be the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, but then announced that they were unable to reach the airfield due to lack of altitude and that they intended to crash land in the Hudson River.
About 6 minutes after taking off from LaGuardia, US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River at about 125 miles an hour. The plane landed within a mile of Times Square and under a kilometre of 3 ferry terminals. Sullenberger has said that he tried to land near some boats so that any survivors from the crash had a larger chance of being rescued from the wreckage.
Once the aircraft came to a halt, passengers evacuated women and children first, unlike the normal procedure of evacuating from the nearest available exit. The inflatable slides at the side of the aircraft were inflated and passengers were evacuated onto them and used them as life rafts.
Landing successfully on water is meant to be one of the most difficult and challenging things that an airline pilot ever has to do.
Local ferries and boats immediately began to rescue passengers, some of whom were standing on the aircraft's wings. Rescue vessels from the FDNY, Coast Guard and NYPD were on the scene of the crash. All passengers and crew were rescued safely and evacuated to the 35 ambulances that were waiting at the harbour's edge to treat the passengers.
The only major injury that was sustained during the crash was two fractured tibias. 78 others were treated for minor injuries and hypothermia.
After the crash, Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York praised the crew of the aircraft and especially captain Chesley Sullenberger who received the "Key to the City" of New York.
Passengers Await Rescue from US Airways 1549
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