

Tracking Flight Path of US Airways 1549 - boundlessdreamz
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/15/nyregion/20090115-plane-crash-970.html

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brfox
A common mistake by small plane pilots is to try and make a U-turn and glide
back to the airport. It usually doesn't work since you lose so much altitude
during the turns. This pilot seemed to do an amazing job of finding the best
glide rate and not turning too much - and then somehow figuring out how to
land the plane in the water.

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logjam
And you _really_ lose a lot of altitude in the stall you induce in that turn,
or trying to extend a glide by back pressure, engine(s) out.

When in doubt, land straight out.

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dcminter
One of the articles I perused mentioned that the pilot was a glider pilot as
well. I wonder if he acquired some transferable skills!

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LogicHoleFlaw
Ex-glider pilots have been known to do awesome and unorthodox things in order
to save a jetliner. This tale of the "Gimli Glider" is another example of
grace in an extreme situation.

<http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=744>

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asmithmd1
Pretty cool; but amateurs can do almost as well with Google maps and Google
Earth: [http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2009/01/short-flight-
of-...](http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.com/2009/01/short-flight-of-1549-on-
google-maps.html)

Teterboro must have been really tempting, a successful ditching is anything
but a sure thing, if one of the wings had caught the water before the other
the plane would have started tumbling at over 100mph.

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weegee
the pilot is said to be an experienced glider pilot, probably helped in this
situation

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rrhyne
Beautiful, but I can't believe they left out how the plane cleared GW bridge
by 900 feet!

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stcredzero
I can't wait until someone gets the black box data and History Channel does an
animation of the landing trajectory.

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smoody
Nicely done! Long Live the NYTimes!

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biohacker42
The NY Times does some very good things, but they also keep publishing Maureen
Dowd and William Kristol.

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biohacker42
I don't mind being down modded, I stand by what I said.

But I am honestly curious who here is a fan of Dowd's and Kristol's writing?

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ardit33
not me. They sound like broken record player, repeating the same stuff over
and over. And Dowd is a misandrist, but that's ok, as it is trendy nowdays.

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astrid
It looks like the pilot decided to not take the chance to land on the small
airport, as if he wanted to avoid the risk to crash into the city.

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delano
That's a good point. With both engines out to provide reverse thrust and
likely little if any emergency landing facilities at Teterboro, he probably
made the right choice.

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delano
This is a great report from NYTimes on the best landing since Air Transat
flight 236 in 2001 (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236>).

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malkia
This just proves that AI would not be soon here! The pilot did an amazing job,
no AI can't beat theat.

