Are we calm, or WHAT?

[Pilgrim]

I was just reading an AOL Online story about the plane ditching in the Hudson river - and Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot.

Here's the bit that captured my attention:

***
Sullenberger told the board that he didn't attempt to return to New York's LaGuardia Airport because he thought, "I cannot afford to be wrong."

"I had to make sure I could make it before I chose that option," he said. Instead of risking a crash in a densely populated area, he glided the plane into the river.

In the last 21 seconds of the flight — with cockpit warning systems blaring "terrain, terrain" and "pull up, pull up" — Sullenberger turned to co-pilot Jeff Skiles.

"You got any ideas?" he asked.

"Not really," Skiles replied.
***

An exchange remarkably free of superfluous expletives!  Story: http://tinyurl.com/kkfa6r

[gweimer]

He's obviously a very experienced pilot.  He went by the book and didn't freak.  They're really killing this story to death, but that's probably because it's a rare success with an inflight problem.  Even with only 100 hours as a pilot, and only in small planes, emergency touchdown was a regular part of flight school.  The first time, my instructor simply yanked the throttle back, and told me "You lost your engine.  Where are you going to land?"  The same rules apply to big planes, and the pilot was already prepared when the engines cut out.  If you've seen him on CNN testifying to Congress, he says that he remembered that the section of the Hudson where they were headed had heavy boat traffic, and that procedure says to put a plane down in an area where passenger evacuation and rescue can be expedited.

[lowend1]

The key factor seems to be that unlike many pilots, he knew how to glide. Granted, it's probably just a little different with a commercial airliner, but the fundamentals were there.

[Highlander]

They are bus drivers, expensively paid but glorified bus drivers all the same (our boss is one - 747's and A340's), with getting into the air being the most dangerous aspect of the trip - there is no doubting his exemplary nature...
I can not be certain of present aircraft but the orange "black boxes" (big and bulky things they used to be - above the rear port toilets on the old 747's I used to work on back in the day), the pilots had the privelege of wiping the metal (used to be 1 hour) loop "tape" if they "embarrassed" themselves...
Those baby airbus' (that US Air was a 319...?) have wings designed by what's left of the British aviation industry, reputedly the best and most advanced there are...
What bothers me is the drip-feed we are getting re the loss of the Air France A330, which is starting to sound like it flew too fast and tore itself to pieces... Not the first time this has occured to a commercial airliner - The Lockheed Electra (still flying in the guise of the Orion sub hunters etc) had an overspeed (engine vibration) issue which tore wings off early versions...

What bothers me even more is the Boeing 777 accident at Heathrow (fuel cut-out 30 seconds from the runway) - the BA ones have Rolls Royce Trent engines, with 110" fans (the Trent's on the A380 are bigger - 118") - the report noted that it would take a year to resolve the problem, so pilots have been advised to avoid extreme cold - I must presume that this has been classified as a ADD - Aircraft Defered Defect - an example of this back in 1979 was an Air New Zealand DC10, they had 2 flights a week from Auckland to LHR, via Fiji and LA; probably the longest scheduled flight in the world... one of them had a "fire-wire" fault on the No 1 (tail) engine that kept "crying wolf"... flashing up that it was on fire... every time she came in up we would go to have a look and check the connections, to no avail... the long-range DC10 had (has) a site port for a sextant (it's a long trip over the Pacific) which they could turn to view the engine, so it could be classified an ADD - it the light flashed on, they would take a look rather than shut her down and hit the extinguisher... the "wire" was stripped out and completely replaced on her next "major" overhaul in Auckland...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but as most airliners are flying in the rarified upper atmosphere, and at their speed the wind chill factor must be significant, is it not sub-zero up there...? They clearly reported that the 777 fuel-freeze issue could re-occur... nice to know it's been classified as an ADD...  all those triple-7's