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last one out, please remember to turn out the lights
last one out, please remember to turn out the lights
Wow. Isn't it true that LaGuardia has a really short runway compared to other airports?
People, people! Yes LaGuardia has a short runway, but that has nothing to do with the crash. They ALREADY took off!
@MissPeacock: Yes, the end of the runway drops right off into the East River. What's interesting is that they bailed in the Hudson river - on the other side of Manhattan. So they caught a little air and cleared the city before they had to ditch.
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@MissPeacock: Not only that but because of where it is you have to land straight down, well not straight but you're ears wont be able to tell the difference.
Take off is bad too, you sit there and feel the jets reving up then pssssshhhhhhhhh, you're off like its a god damned ride. I love that part.
@MissPeacock: yes it is and its really fun when you land....you are thrusted forward and the plane is braking HARD to avoid running right into the water at the end of the runway. Always fun times.
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@Adrienne Willis: Ah, weird. I've flown into LaGuardia a few times and never noticed. I should pay more attention next time!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-6173-100x100.png\")
@Adrienne Willis: I HATE HATE HATE HATE airports like this. (Especially when I know there's water.) I took off from one in Ireland in a full-size jet where they seriously like revved the engines and then released the brakes with a jerk, aircraft carrier style. Horrific.
@Eyebrows McGee: aaaaah, but at least with water there's still the possibility of doing this landing. Imagine if this happened in Kansas.
@Jordan Martin: Kansas is full of CORN!
I actually saw a small private plane (like a Cessna) make an emergency landing in Wisconsin once. He came in so low I thought he was going to land on my car, used an empty stretch of county road for touchdown, and then veered off into the corn to stop himself in the mud/corn. (Some problem(s) with engines & brakes.)
I find water much scarier than miles of open cornfields! Although I'd just generally prefer to avoid those short-distance take-off/landings. And any and all forms of emergency landing!
(My parents tell me in St. Maarten, they often come on the intercom before takeoff to explain to passengers what's about to happen, because they take off pretty short, over water, and IMMEDIATELY bank a hard right to not smash into a mountain ... which is apparently unsettling for the passengers!)
I wonder how many people brought their seat-cushion-flotation-device with them?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-175610-100x100.png\")
This on the heels of yesterday's story on airline safety. : ) At least it seems there were no deaths with this one.
@MyPetFly: You mean Airlines Fail To Kill Passengers 2 Years Running?
Well, at least now we know they're putting up a good effort!
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-68720-100x100.png\")
Do you get your baggage fees refunded if it all sinks?
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Getting everyone off the plane would make up for a lot of shit by an airline. Although credit must also go to emergency personnel and such.
Getting people off a sinking airplane = good customer service.
Still, this must have been scary as hell. Just thinking of a plane going into the water, \"planned crash\" or not, makes my stomach turn.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-64687-100x100.png\")
@Smashville: No kidding. At first I thought this was just a case of the airplane skidding off the runway since La Guardia is right on the water. Then I realized that the plane is in the Hudson, which means the plane took off, flew east to west over Manhattan, then landed in one piece in the water. The flight crew are heroes.
@IphtashuFitz: The early article I saw had aviation experts saying the pilots basically engaged in a superhuman effort, since they were working with little speed, little altitude, and this kind of crash doesn't very often end up UPRIGHT ... let alone upright in the river instead of on top of somebody's house with (so far) no serious injuries reported.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-154749-100x100.png\")
Once again, U.S. Scareways lives up to its name.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-483565-100x100.png\")
@11hawkinst: If it really is a birdstrike on two engines, as is being suspected, that's hardly something the airline can be blamed for, but they can indeed be credited for having cockpit crew that managed a controlled descent in such a situation.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-107356-100x100.png\")
Damn, I bet that's pretty scary but I'd also be scared of the water itself. I've always heard that the Hudson is a really nasty river.
@Wubbytoes: not too nasty, I kayak in it every summer (by 65th street I believe). The east river has the bad currents that are hard to survive.
@Adrienne Willis: Well that's good to know. I guess it's one of those things that people always exaggerate. Good to know also that all the passengers are okay. That was one hell of a pilot they had today.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-17616-100x100.png\")
Remarkable they were able to keep it upright...you don't usually hear it turning out like that...
How much did they charge for the water?
@MyPetFly: Rumor has it that the flight attendants came around selling life vests and priority rescue seating for $50 just before the incident.
Irony here is we have photographic proof that US Air is full of crap now :)
Didn't we just have the article this week about 2 years without a death on a major American Airline? Did that announcement jinx it?
US Air = Under Sea Air?
It's being reported now that they hit 2 birds. NOT pilot error, and it's pretty fucking amazing that the pilots managed to make \"controlled landing\" in the Hudson River.
@LiC: You know, I really wonder what happens to the pilots in these cases. You've just dealt with an emergency situation, succeeded in safely returning your passengers to ground (er, well close enough in this case), but you've lost a rather valuable piece of equipment in the process. What does the company do? Are the pilots penalized in any fashion, told to take a break to relax from the incident, rewarded for making sure the customers have a chance to be repeat customers, anything?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-439678-100x100.png\")
@Skunky: The media is making the pilots out to be heroes. The air lines have turned their noses up at the public before but I think they'd be skewered if they fired this pilot
@Skunky: More than likely they probably take a break while being interviewed by the NTSB/FAA, get de-briefed by their airline, and until they get medical clearance from both physical/mental doctors.
@KHAN!!!_GitEmSteveDave: I can see that, that makes alot of sense. I forgot about pilot physicals too. + <3
@Skunky: Wages docked to pay for equipment damage? I don't know, since it wasn't pilot error I would bet they would be fine. Though, when the Gimli Glider went down, the airlines scapegoated the pilots for a ground error and demoted the pilot for six months and the first officer got himself a two week suspension. Though, since it wasn't the airline's error, they don't need to scapegoat anyone here.
@Con Seannery hates Facebook and Trebek: To be fair, the pilots did make rather a massive ground error on that one, and if they hadn't made it, they wouldn't have needed their later heroics. Sort of like the China Airways pilots that heroically managed to pull a 747 out of a downward spin--that they had not-so-heroically let the plane spiral into.
@floraposte: Um, what ground error? Not stopping in the middle of the SHORT runway because of the birds?...was the comment I was going to write until I figured out what you were talking about. I will however leave this comment up as a testement to the perils of speaking before before fully comprehending one's comment.
@Wormfather is Wormfather: Heh. Sorry about the tangent. No, I wasn't suggesting that there was some patented Bird Evasion Tactic (\"Shoo!\" \"Check\") that the pilots failed to perform.
I think you're misunderstanding the term \"bird strike.\" It doesn't mean that there was a bird in the engine when they took off and they failed to notice it during the pre-flight. It means that a bird (or numerous birds) were sucked into the engines from outside once the plane was already airborne.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-161523-100x100.png\")
Little do the passengers know that their credit cards were charged a $150 fee for being rescued.
Sucks for all the pets in the cargo hold.
I'm pretty sure US isn't a reputable airline....they would put pax down there if they could!
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I'm sorry, but how the HELL can you be making fun of this right now?
@L-dizzle:
I totally agree. Anyone that thinks this is funny at all is a sick bastard. Its a fucking miracle that they all survived. The pilots really are heroes and true professionals.
@ras_d:
I'm disgusted that anyone would make jokes about this too.
\"Welcome to US Airways. Warning: The first ten rows WILL GET WET.\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-2044-100x100.png\")
@L-dizzle: you don't know how people can make be making fun of this right now? like the mechanics of it?
basically you find something that you find amusing concerning the topic at hand. in this case... 'airlines' or 'crash' or 'polluted rivers' or perhaps a combination. you can tie observations about the exact event in with archetypes concerning any of the key players in the event. maybe mix in some pop culture references etc. if it makes you laugh... it is a good bet someone else might laugh as well.
here are some tutorials :
[www.wikihow.com]
[www.ehow.com]
then below the article itself there is a link saying \"Start a new discussion\"... you'd want to click that (make sure you are logged in!). that will make a little text box show up.
now this is important : type the amusing or funny comment you thought up in the previous step *into that box*.
below the box there is a button that says \"Submit\". once that is clicked you joke is then posted in response to the article.
it is actually pretty easy with a bit of practice.
@x23: best.comment.ever.
Of course people are making fun of it, nobody died. even if they did I think there would still be jokes, just not yet. It would be too early.
@L-dizzle: Pft, even if I was one of the passengers there, I'd probably be making snarky remarks.
I'd be on the wing, waving my arms, shouting \"Ghost ride the whip!\"
@Skunky: Or on the wing trying to get the shit in your boxers to fall down your pants leg before anything soaks through.
@Con Seannery hates Facebook and Trebek: If I wave my arms enough, no one will notice that part, right?
@L-dizzle:
On the Intarweb ANYTHING can be made fun of. Think of the most horrific thing ever, there is a joke about it. The humor version of Rule 34 (look it up).
@L-dizzle: As of now everyone survived, the pilot and crew did an excellent job of ensuring everyone's safety, the Airline is not at fault nor is the airport, so what would you like us to discuss about this story?
@L-dizzle: It's a blog it's what we do.
Man, I thought these planes were supposed to withstand \"bird strikes.\"
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-457717-100x100.png\")
@Angryrider: They are and it did. Over the years bird-strikes have led to engines exploding with fanblades ripping through the passenger compartment with fatal results.
This time the engines went out but the plane continued to glide adequately which is why everyone survived.
If birds went into both engines and each had a few broken fan blades, that's all she wrote. Also, depending on how the aircraft is designed, sometimes various systems only run from one engine or the other (or others), and if you lose an engine that provides power to a vital system, well, that's all she wrote.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-409488-100x100.png\")
@MyPetFly: Modern airplanes are designed with redundancy- no single engine is vital. If an engine dies (birdstrike, FOD, explosion, whatever), all the aircraft systems can be powered by the remaining engine.
If both engines go out, there's an emergency Ram turbine which automatically deploys, burning off some of the aircraft's speed to power emergency systems.
@MyPetFly: After a few crashes which were caused by this, they have really started putting the backups on different engines on the newer planes as best they can.
@L-dizzle: I can guarantee you there are at least 10 people who were on the wing/raft who were cracking jokes while there. Humor is how some people deal with incidents. I got stuck on a roller coaster at a 45 degree angle, and I am TERRIFIED of roller coasters. Except for my girly screams of, \"get me off\", everything else out of my mouth was a joke/humor, b/c I was so damn scared.
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@KHAN!!!_GitEmSteveDave: i would have been the guy on the back of the roller coaster yelling back \"thats what she said!\"
every situation can be made fun of.
@MyPetFly: If the fan blades broke off into something important, or the engine took enough damage, it's gonna turn off anyways. It can fly on one, but if it sucked a bird into both sides, well, let's just say the pilots pulled off a hell of a landing.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-472849-100x100.png\")
@Angryrider: Actually, they do, to an extent. GE, which makes many commercial engines, as well as military ones, tests them by throwing frozen chickens when the engines are up to speed. As a matter of fact, PETA has had an ongoing PR/argument with engine manufacturers for this practice.
@rorschachex: There's a wikipedia article on it - [en.wikipedia.org]
Also, it involves the NASA Chicken Gun [en.wikipedia.org]
Ah... I love what our government spends money on.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-342344-100x100.png\")
@L-dizzle: It's way easier now it is being reported that they think everyone survived -- passengers and crew members. The scare is over, so the jokes can begin.
Not saying I approve, necessarily, but I can see where someone might be coming from.
Sucks that you have to leave you bags - I would be quite happy to be alive, yes, but will insurance buy me a new iPod? On that note, anyone have a dog in the cargo hold? :-(
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-134948-100x100.png\")
@Corporate_guy: If you are grabbing your bags are you are exiting a plane on an emergency, you deserve to get your face knocked in. Remember last month, when the plane skidded off the runway and caught on fire? The situation became chaotic when people couldn't evacuate because passengers were getting their useless shit out of the overhead bins.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-511415-100x100.png\")
@farcast: oh man, that's a good point. very very sad point.
and is there such thing as luggage insurance?
@lalaland13: @IphtashuFitz: Yeah, sorry for not being more specific. I did mean to give credit more to the people who work for the airline on this particular flight. Although if corporate served as the flight crew, my God. They'd charge everyone a $50 \"water landing fee\" before letting them out.
I noticed all the shades are drawn. Do you think they were ordered to do so for some reason or was it out of fear of watching the water level?
@richcreamerybutter: Alot of people just like having them drawn to keep the sun out, and they might have put them down in case something came at the window, one more layer it would have to pass.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-142052-100x100.png\")
Hopefully this will finally get rid of USAir.
@Triborough: Right, let's can the airline with the amazing pilot who can crash land on a river and have everyone be ok.... usair gets extra points in my book for this.
i gotta say if you are one of those passengers standing on the wing once the adrenaline finally wears off you have to be thinking \"wow that was pretty badass to be standing on a wing of a commercial jet in the middle of the hudson river!\"
@Adrienne Willis:
Plus, with the right camera angle (at least the one I saw on NBC) it looks like they were walking on water. Magic!
you're kinda late. This is pretty much all over with now. They're tugging the plane to the shore now. Everyone's been rescued. 71 ppl minor injuries, 1 with moderate.
@Vanessa Miyazato: I thought there were a few severe hypothermia cases, but that might already be taken care of or might be a false report.
@Con Seannery hates Facebook and Trebek: I went to work in -14F here, but I'd much rather do that than 20 F in the Hudson.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-406930-100x100.png\")
@Con Seannery hates Facebook and Trebek:
Two people (a guy and his wife) have been brought to Roosevelt Hospital for hypothermia (and a about 20+ other to other local NYC and NJ hospitals for other injuries. A stewardess fractured her leg...)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-395557-100x100.png\")
This reminds me of another, infamous, water landing. The Ethiopian Airline Flight 961. It's the end result of a hijacking; the plane ran out of fuel before reaching its destination and had to do a water landing, just shy of a beach. The footage was captured by a tourist. I'm sure there's youtube footage of it somewhere: scary stuff. Some people did survive...not many though. Only about 40% of the passengers.
So I'm glad to see the plane so intact, and everyone alive, in this case.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-529488-100x100.png\")
@Ber'Zophus: Yeah, I saw it on youtube last night. If that pilot had touched the wing to the water just one iota too early, the whole thing would've started cartwheeling down the hudson and everyone would be dead.
Serious SERIOUS kudos to the pilot for keeping her level with no power.
@Ber'Zophus: Yeah, this thing came down PERFECTLY. If it starts to roll, dear God you have a problem.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-488475-100x100.png\")
I saw this on MSN. Scary!
It was/is a madhouse. I was around 42nd and 11th when it went down - walked the few blocks to the site. just... damn... those people are soo lucky.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-4166-100x100.png\")
it looks like a subway platform full of commuters... except they're in the middle of the hudson... on the wing of an airplane... which is a foot underwater
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-119886-100x100.png\")
I wonder how much US Airways charged them for lifejackets before getting off the plane.
WTF is wrong with you people? A plane crashes, and it's time for jokes? Morons.
@BrodskyLaw: Sometime back I and my co-workers were convinced I was having a heart attack. I was in some serious pain. I will tell you, I was whipping out a joke every 90 seconds.
\"Did you ever hear about the guy who had a heart attack?\"
\"No.\"
\"Then why the fuck did they send you?\"
@Wormfather is Wormfather: If I recall correctly, Ronald Reagan was busy cracking jokes en route to the hospital after being shot.. \"I sure hope the surgeon is a Republican\", etc.
Ha ha!!! Classic! I'll have to remember that the next time I'm facing my own mortality! ; )
Please accept my apologies and those of my fellow commenters that posted humor in connection with this accident that miraculously left most people fairly unscathed.
Respectfully,
Chief of Morons
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-614388-100x100.png\")
@BrodskyLaw: As has been mentioned, 1) they're all alive, and 2) this is how MANY people deal with stress and anxiety.
Honestly, how can *you* listen to the FBI announce that it's not terrorism related and NOT laugh at the idea of Terrorist Geese?
@Pithlit: why geese? why not Hawks? I think a Hudson Hawk would take down any plane(horrible movie joke)
Now I just want to make jokes so the people complaining about the jokes can make more jokes.
@TheWillow: even in tragedy people use humor to deal. When I was taken on a nice ambulance ride in December I was talking to the EMT regarding how they deal with tragic situations and he told me that the first responders (cops, firefighters, EMT) will tell jokes (quietly and not in view of onlookers or the family) to keep their spirits up and the mood light.
But I guess by some people's standards they would be considered morons or insensitive as well.
@Adrienne Willis: The day of the London Tube bombings a few years ago one of the sites I regularly visit was full of crying/vengeful Americans and British folks making tea and IRA jokes. It warmed my heart.
Wow, glad to see everyone alive.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-514936-100x100.png\")
What they aren't telling you is they have charged their Credit Cards and extra $250, for a scenic cruise down the Hudson river
Glad that everyone made it out okay.
Consumerist should be crediting the CORRECT person for the photo: [twitter.com]
Maybe it should horrify me, but the fact that somebody either involved in the rescue or possibly even a rescued passenger him/herself has already taken the time to Twitter this sort of warms my heart. It's like proof that everything really is fine.
Remember: READ THE SAFETY INSTRUCTION CARDS. EVERY TIME.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-42681-100x100.png\")
@picardia: That photo was taken by a passenger on one of the ferries that rushed to pick up the survivors. He couldn't have known when he Twittered it that everyone was going to be O.K.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-21380-100x100.png\")
@L-dizzle: Any plane crash where everyone survives is a good plane crash.
The industry can still maintain that they have had two straight fatality-free years.
A bird can't bring down a plane, it was on myth busters
@TrueBlue63: Go on youtube and look up birdstrike. There's a good video showing exactly one ONE LARGE BIRD can do to an engine.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-257922-100x100.png\")
@TrueBlue63: Also, please tell me the majority of people don't consider Mythbusters an infallible source of truth. That show's analysis is chock full of holes. They substitute all kinds of shit for the real thing so much to the point that it could hardly be considered a scientific experiment.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-257467-100x100.png\")
@youbastid: You mean the part where they use stuff that should be more effective than the myth they're busting? That's just to further prove that the myth is unreliable, or at least simulate conditions in which such a thing could happen
@TrueBlue63: It can really mess with the engines, depending upon how large a bird.
Look up \"bird ingestion.\" Essentially, when a bird gets sucked into a jet engine. They try to test engines for this in a test which approximates flight conditions by firing bird carcasses into a jet engine using what might as well be a cannon (or, at least they used to use real carcasses; not sure if they have a substitute which can be used these days). If an engine ingests a large enough bird, it really can cause some serious damage. It can, and has, brought down planes.
@Cogito Ergo Bibo: And even if it's just a brief stall, having it happen in both engines simultaneously at such a low altitude means you don't have much in the way of recovery time.
If you get a bird (not to mention multiple birds) down BOTH engines, it can cause the engines to disintegrate. When titanium blades come off of a turbine at 6000+ rpms, they are going to go through something, most likely the hydraulic pumps/line, accesory drive, etc.
I've seen small birds ingested with no problems, but when you get into larger fowl, they usually cause issues.
@TrueBlue63: erm no. the boys have not tested any myth about bird-strikes on flying aircraft.
I think you refer to the Chicken Cannon? that was the myth that a Frozen bird does more damage than a thawed one.
Bird Strikes do take planes of all sizes out of the air. there's no myth to this.
Tomorrows Headline: Plane survivors all have mutant capabilities... Ewww the Hudson.
With enough chemicals in the water, they might end up with two heads like the fish in the news. Of course, there will be an extra head fee on the airline.
This is the first ditching I've seen that actually looks like the picture on the little safety briefing card. You know, the one with the airplane floating placidly on the water.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-109901-100x100.png\")
The pilots deserve every award they can get for landing this thing and nobody getting seriously hurt.. it's an incredible story.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-462451-100x100.png\")
What a pilot! Great jobs all around here!
@EarlNowak: There were more than one or two crashes where power to a system was supplied from one engine only, which caused just one step in the cascade sequence that causes most plane crashes(this failure leads to this failure, etc..., where if one of the failures didn't occur, the crash could have been prevented). Flight 191 is one that comes to mind where an entire engine was lost which killed the hydraluics, and also all of the captain's instruments. The only way to restore power was to manually transfer power from another system to supply the captain's panel.
Omg someone told my boss (we work in Queens) and she asked where it was and they said it's in the Hudson river...
She said \"Oh who cares, I thought it was close by… I thought it was one of our airports.\" (we work in air freight/logistics so it's kind of our job to know where things are.... particularly things in close proximity to airports lol)
They explained to her that it came from La Guardia and it IS close by and it crashed next to Manhattan…
Then she's like \"oh so why do they keep saying Hudson river? That doesn't make sense\"
Then when they were talking about how they think it was birds getting sucked into the engines on take-off, she kept saying \"why didn't they shoo them out of the engine when they were de-icing the plane? Why would you take off when there is a bird in your engine???
Someone explained to her that the birds are hit and sucked into the engine during take-off and she says \"No, that's not possible, the plane is so big and loud it scares the birds away. I just don't get why they didn't check the engines for birds before they took off\"
Here's an informative link to what actually happens when an aircraft engine ingests a bird, with photos.
The occupants of this flight were very fortunate, and the pilots deserve remarkable credit.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-62073-100x100.png\")
This story thrills me to no end. I'm so glad they're all safe and sound!!! Really, I'm totally serious. I'm high as a cloud. :)
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-433752-100x100.png\")
DAMMIT! As soon as we say American carriers don't kill us, they do!
After more than a year, I completed the hardware and software phases of our office computer system (only 20 PC's networked). The surgeries I performed were textbook. Everything worked and had the perfect day. This was just Icing on the cake. Thank you US Airways pilot, whoever you are. Im sure you'll be a household name soon.
Lets hope Obama can navigate our economy back with the same grace and skill this pilot used to land his plane. Kudos to the crew who saved well over 100 lives!!!
@GoVegan: Uh, I hope Obama does better than pilot our economy to zero (feet above sea level) with the gentlest possible landing.
@MyPetFly: Rumor has it that the flight attendants came around selling life vests and priority rescue seating for $50 just before the incident.
LMFO...MyPetFly, please don't give Spirit Air any new marketing ideas, please. Last time I flew to LGA, Spirit had the brass cojones to fly us in turbulence around Manhattan for an hour and a half. People were barfing in the aisle and all over seats because Spirit (budget airline!) no longer provides barf bags. Their marketing execs are probably cre&*$ming themselves over your idea above as a new way to make a buck...
The pilot should be commended.
A lot of guts to make the decision that he could not make Teterboro, lining up for a landing on the Hudson, avoiding any boat traffic and landing a lead ballon with no power and keeping it under control.
Thank goodness he did't try to make NJ. This could have been horrible if he had tried to make Teterboro and failed... and worse if had tried to loop back to LaGuardia.
My first reaction seeing the background of this picture reminded me of the attack on the WTC on 9/11/2001. Too bad the 2 planes with all those innocent victims didn't land in the water as this plane did. May they all rest in peace. I worked in the North Tower and watched in horror as many other people did, the events of that tragic day.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-189920-100x100.png\")
I'm glad everybody is okay, I was worried it would sink and wondered how they'd get out.
Even stranger is I just watched Cast Away two days ago and was thinking about what would happen if a plane flew into the ocean/mass amount of water.
@kylo4iskyle4:
The A320 has a \"Ditch\" button that automatically closes all vents etc to prevent ingress of water
You disappoint me, Carey.
Where's the \"US Airways fails to murder 155 passenger\" headline?
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-435267-100x100.png\")
Absolutely phenomenal airmanship on the part of the Flight crew.
Absolutely phenomenal work by the Inflight crew in getting everyone off alive and virtually unharmed (last report is a dozen in the hospital, only two with serious injuries out of 135).
This ex-airline employee gives them a standing ovation (and I never worked for USAir)!
Don't forget the $125 Emergency Exit Usage Fee.
And the Unscheduled Stop fee of 395 dollars.
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-116599-100x100.png\")
I'm surprised that after the plane hit the water the water (yes the water) didn't burst into flames and defying the laws of physics fall to the ground at free fall speed.
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-301060-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-114986-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-291961-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-70881-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-23360-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"/mt-static/support/assets_c/userpics/userpic-171069-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-16563-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-237297-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-453882-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-1504-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-285629-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-378539-100x100.png\")
![\"user-pic\"](\"http://consumerist.com/assets_c/userpics/userpic-648033-100x100.png\")
That is a scary looking photo. Looks like it is 50 years old or something. Hope everyone is ok.
@joeblevins:
Is this any better looking?
@joeblevins: I'm going to imagine that was taken through a dirty window.