Channel 9

US Airways Flight 1549

January 17, 2009 – 5:10 pm

Very few airplane incidents end as well as US Airways Flight 1549. Instead of focusing on why the plane broke up in midair or filled with water so quickly, the NTSB can study what happened to allow all 150 or so people to walk away from this crash. Hopefully the lessons from this will help prevent future disasters.  And with that a couple of words on what went right:

1. Plane/Engine Design:  Both engines failed as a result of the geese (assuming the preliminary reports are correct).  That’s not good.  But, despite reports of smoke and fire, the engine failures appear to have had little impact on the structure of the airplane or any other internal structures.  The A320 is fly-by-wire and the pilot apparently had complete control over mechanisms that allowed him to land the plane so smoothly.

Also, the ditch button on the A320 that allowed the pilot to seal the plane in the water likely allowed for the successful evacuation before the plane sunk.

2. Crew Resource Management: As things go, you may have seen a story out recently heralding two consecutive calendar years (07 and 08) without any commercial flying fatalities.  Much of the safety improvements of the past decade can be accounted for by an emphasis on Crew Resource Management.  Essentially, communication, leadership and decision-making in the cockpit.  The last communications with ATC suggest that the pilot was going to try to land at Teterboro.  But, the pilot apparently changed his mind and ditched in the Hudson.  My guess is that this likely had to do with the pilot’s calculation of the airplane going down in a populated area before it reached the landing strip at Teterboro.  Regardless, the pilot clearly made the right decision and communicated well with his team during and after the landing.

3. Skill: Sometimes the right guy is in the right place.  There’s little more to say than that.  Except, now that is has been done, then perhaps general training for water landings can be improved.

4. Luck:  It was a clear day in what has been a turbulent and snowy winter.  The water was cold but the plane hit a Hudson full of water, not ice.

Overall, an amazing story and hopefully one that airplane manufactures, airlines, pilots, cabin crew and safety organizations can learn from.