
Videos show US Air crash-landing  - kqr2
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/17/usair.splash.video/index.html
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DanielBMarkham
As a pilot, it's great to watch a guy make something hair-raising into
something that looks like a milk run.

I'd be interested to see if the pilot had a float rating. I'd also be curious
as to how the wind was in relation to the river. Ideally the plane would be
pointing directly upwind as it hit the water.

However the details worked out (and we pilots love the details) the crew had
only seconds to configure and land the plane. Kudos to them for being able to
change context and execute a fairly rare maneuver without flaw. There are some
great stories about commercial jets doing just fine without engines (check out
the Gimli Glider for instance <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gimli_Glider>) I
remember one from South America that involved going through a cloud deck to
land on a levee. This pilot gets to add his name to some of the best of the
breed. Completely outstanding.

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delano
There was also Air Transat flight 236 that landed in the Azores:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236>

Do you remember what air line was involved in the South American incident?

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DanielBMarkham
There's a wiki page, but this discussion page is better

[http://www.airliners.net/aviation-
forums/general_aviation/re...](http://www.airliners.net/aviation-
forums/general_aviation/read.main/3606153)

The pilots requested permission to fly the plane off the levee (!) but were
denied.

There's a whole series of interesting power-out landings, including the DC-9
at Sioux City. A recap would be a good idea for a blog post for someone....

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tlb
That seems like it worked really well. There's been a lot of gnashing of teeth
about the fact that jet engines can't survive ingesting birds, but it seems
like all you have to do is have a body of water past the end of the runway and
a rescue boat ready, and a failed engine is just an inconvenience.

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delano
That is a seriously talented pilot. He makes it look like a natural maneuver
but the margin for error was incredibly low.

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JabavuAdams
Is he? If he had to do that 100 times, how many times would he succeed? What
would be the average across all pilots for that type? What would be the
variance?

I'm happy he succeeded, this time, but I can't resist nitpicking the flaw in
your argument. Can you tell I'm reading _Fooled by Randomness_?

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delano
Ya, those are fair questions. I don't have the information to answer them
objectively since I'm just a dirt farmer from Alabama but noonespecial
explains it pretty well.

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paul7986
Here's one that shows the quick evacuation of passengers onto the wing then
how long it took for boat to reach them. You have to forward some thru vid to
see.

[http://snackfeed.com/videos/detail/84bdb03e-3621-102c-a525-0...](http://snackfeed.com/videos/detail/84bdb03e-3621-102c-a525-00304897c9c6)

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geofffox
Perfect landing. And he was lucky the river was so empty. There are often
large oil barges moving slowly or moored in the center of the river.

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johnrob
Very impressive how slow he got the plane to go. Without using the engines for
reverse thrust, I don't know how one would slow down.

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vijayshankar
I think they don't use engines to slow down. I have seen some parts of the
wings (like the rear half of the wings..) along its length standing up right (
something like right angle to the direction of motion of plane) putting a lot
of resistance to the air while planes need to slow down.

Using the engine to slow down is like using the reverse gear of your car to
slow down, which no one does, which never works (because of possible breakdown
of the engine) and should not be done to save the engine from damage.

[ I am not a mechanical or automobile engineer. But this is my knowledge ]

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ars
They have three things:

Those surfaces as you call them. Thrust reversers (basically fins that push
over the end of the jet and redirect the thrust forward), and the brakes on
the wheels.

All planes must (by FAA regs), be able to land without using the thrust
reversers (using the brakes instead), but thrust reversers are what's used in
normal cases (since it saves wear on the brakes).

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tlrobinson
Anyone know what they're throwing from the ferry near the end? Life preservers
to people in the water, maybe?

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tlb
I think they're getting rid of the life preservers, because they're bulky and
would allow fewer people to squeeze into the boat.

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sam_in_nyc
Very cool. I ride my bike right by there when the weather is nice.

