The ditching of US Air flight 1549 in the Husdon River is a remarkable accident in many respects and there are a couple of points I want to clarify. The flight captain Chesley Sullenberger is both very mediatic (bad luck) and discreet (smart guy…) and has to assume the hero role in front of media. Media need one hero per story as it helps the audience to identify with and recognize him. In this very case the rest of the crew is never mentionned at all but as good as captain Sullenberger is he did not do the job alone. This do not reduces his talent, flying skills and airmanship, but he had a co-pilot, cabin crew and ATC to support him. Crew resoures management (CRM) is all about that – manage and get the best of all available resources. Being a captain is not only about flying… so kudos to all of the crew: Captain, Co-Pilot, Cabin Crew, ATC, and the rescue teams. It is interesting to see that the co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, was the flying pilot on this leg, but Captain Sullenberger decided to take over after the bird strike. Taking this decision and its acceptation by the co-pilot reveals excellent CRM. Swapping the flying pilot and non-flying pilot roles under such circumstances requires in-depth training and conviction that the CRM principles are good.

Secondly, about the evacuation, achieving it so quickly is no miracle. It’s the result of aircraft design (click here to read more about evacuation procedures and certification), good procedures, and crew training. On most flights the role of cabin crew boils down to greet passengers, give safety briefings and serve drinks. But this is not always the case, and these guys and girls are well trained in emergency situations management.

Another thing that’s quite misunderstood by mainstream media is that aircarft can perfectly fly and remain controllable after the engines quit. Gaining altitude is not possible, or limited by the initial ammount of speed available, but turns and a controlled descent are perfectly doable. The purpose of the engines is to produce thrust resulting in speed. Lift and controllability come from the combination of speed and wings design, not from the engines themselves. A pilot who can’t have thrust can trade height for speed and keep his aircraft under control. This is exactly what glider pilots are doing but it applies to wide-body airliners as well. I can already hear the objection: but modern jets need hydraulic pressure and electrical power to fly. This is correct and this is why they’re equipped with RATs for the very unlikely case of double engine loss. Not rats, but RATs: Ram Air Turbine. Click here to read more about RATs.

The very initial reports suggest multiple bird strikes as a cause for this accident. Bird strikes are quite common things and hopefully don’t systematically result in engine failures. Jet engines are somehow tolerant to bird ingestion but as all mechanical systems they have their limits. If this is confirmed as a cause, this particular flock of birds was certainly denser and larger that the average. There are several planes coming back to land or loosing one engine on final because of bird strikes but cases of double engine loss are rarities. Click here to read about history of bird strikes… back up to one of the Wright Brothers flight.

Finally, a few words about ditching. Because of the destructive nature of ditching there is not a lot of experience available. As for any contact with a surface, a minimal rate of descent is advised. Ditching with gear retracted avoids to break the landing gear and possibly damage the fuselage or the wings. It also reduced the drag during the glide. An important point is also, on the Airbus 320, not to open the aft doors, because they could be below the waterline. I remember sawing it on a “safety on board” card. Who said these things were not worth reading ?

I look forward to read the report about this accident but I will in any case remember it as a remarkable example of a well-trained crew perfectly coping with one of the most critical emergencies. And this training made that 2 (cockpit-crew) + 3 (cabin-crew) was greater than 5. Much greater.