Miracle on the Hudson pilots talks. Emergency landing on the Hudson. Passengers in the cabin of the plane heard strong blows. The smell of smoke penetrated inside, and some people saw burning engines through the porthole window, which, of course, caused great panic.
57-year-old American pilot, former military pilot Chesley Sullenberger saved one and a half hundred lives in a few seconds.
After both engines failed due to bird strikes, he landed .
Pavement between bridges
All passengers and crew members survived. By the way, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration, from 1990 to 2007, 80 thousand cases of bird collisions with passenger aircraft were recorded in the country. Birds pose a potential threat to about one in 10 thousand flights.
But in the USSR there was a similar case. On August 21, 1963, an aircraft flying from Tallinn to Moscow made the world's first successful splashdown in Leningrad. Already during takeoff at the Tallinn airport, the Tu-124 commander Viktor Mostovoy discovered that the landing gear had jammed.
The commander reported the problem to dispatchers. However, due to thickening fog, an emergency landing in Tallinn was banned. Mostovoy was offered to land the car on the spare unpaved runway of the Pulkovo airfield in Leningrad, - recalls Vladimir Dmitriev, Honored Pilot of the USSR.
The plane circled over the city, developing a fuel supply of up to a ton. On the seventh lap, the flight engineer reported to Mostovoy that there was more fuel left than was necessary according to the instructions. "I'm going for one more circle," the commander said to the ground. He did not suspect that the plane's fuel gauges were faulty. When the airport was 21 km away, the fuel supply was exhausted: the aircraft's left engine stopped.
To shorten the distance to the airfield, the crew decided to fly over the historic center of the city. However, the second engine also failed over Smolny. Fortunately, the Neva was below, - says Dmitriev. - "Vitya, get on the water," shouted Vasily Chechenov, the co-pilot, a former hydro-pilot.
And then Mostovoy made the only right decision in the current situation: to land the plane on the surface of the water - between the Bolsheokhtinsky and Finlandsky bridges. To avoid panic, the 27-year-old commander ordered the crew members to distract the passengers with conversations.
The plane flew a couple of meters over the Alexander Nevsky bridge - at that time still under construction. Workers standing on metal structures fell into the water in horror. A few tens of meters from the Finland Bridge, the plane flopped into the river.
When landing, the Tu-124 received a hole and almost immediately began to take on water. Only thanks to the actions of Yuri Porshin, the captain of the tugboat, who hooked the metal cable to the pilots' helm and towed the plane to the shore, he did not sink at a depth of 13 meters. It was "moored" to the berth of the "Northern Press" plant so that one of the wings lay on land, forming a gangway. The aircraft commander was the last to land. He was very calm, but completely gray-haired.
Reward or punish? - such a question arose before the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR immediately after the accident.
Mostovoy was expelled from the squadron for sloppiness. Allegedly, through his fault, the Tu-124 at first almost collapsed on the center of Leningrad, and then almost went to the bottom, - continues Vladimir Dmitriev. - Only after the scandal reached the Central Committee of the CPSU, and the heroism of the pilot became known in the West, Mostovoy was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and his crew members were awarded medals.
The plane landed on the plane
But splashdown is not the most exotic landing option. So, on July 8, 2005, a 55-year-old Porsche driver decided to use the runway at the airport in Bitburg, Germany, to enjoy the speed of his car. Permission from the airport management, oddly enough, was available. That is why the racer calmly rushed along the strip at a speed of 160 km / h. Suddenly, a light aircraft began to land right on the roof of the Porsche. The driver braked hard, causing the plane to slide off the roof and fall to the ground. The 58-year-old pilot was not injured, but his wings were broken. The police later determined that it was the pilot who was responsible for the accident: he did not request permission to land. But the most curious thing: they had to prepare a special report to the Porsche insurance company, where they refused to believe that a plane had tried to land on their client's car.
And in Florida, they still remember how the pilot of a single-engine Piper Cheruki tried to make an emergency landing on a highway near the city of Dundeen. After hitting the road, the plane bounced several times, threw aside two trucks and landed on the roof of the third. The pilot and driver escaped with minor bruises, and several people at the "landing" site - with a strong fright.
However, other "landing sites" compete on equal terms with the roofs of cars. For example, in 2001 in the UK, a light plane landed right on a residential building. After the engine failed, the pilot had an alternative: to sit on the railroad tracks or on the roof of the house. And in October 2008, a sports plane landed right on the roof of the Austrian police building. And again, there were no casualties.
But perhaps the most amazing landing happened last year in the US state of Texas: when one plane landed right on top of another. At the airport, which is located near Dallas, the controller informed the pilot of the approaching aircraft that the runway was clear and gave permission to land. At this time, another liner left the taxiway. The accident could not be avoided. Both cars suffered serious damage, but the pilots were not injured.
Meanwhile
According to Valery Shelkovnikov, board member of the World Aviation Safety Foundation, approach and landing are the most difficult stages of a flight. Long-term statistics show: annually for this reason, an average of 17 accidents occur in the world.
other unique landings
Tu-134 State Research Institute of Civil Aviation performed test flights from the Sheremetyevo airfield. During the landing approach, two engines failed at the same time. The commander landed the plane on the water surface of the Moscow Canal. No harm done.
"Boeing 727-230" of the Greek airline operated a flight from Athens to Thessaloniki. The aircraft was flown by experienced pilots. The weather at the destination airport was the most difficult: a thunderstorm, gusts of wind, powerful clouds. The plane flew over the first third of the runway, as a result, during landing, it rolled out of its limits, its nose hung over the Mediterranean coast. But the crew and passengers - 35 people - survived.
Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-260ER flew from Addis Ababa to Abidjan. Shortly after entering Kenyan airspace, three terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded to fly to Australia. But on the approach to Comoros, the plane ran out of fuel, the engines stopped. The pilots tried to land in shallow water 500 meters from the beach, but the left engine and wing edge hit the water and the car collapsed. Of the 175 people on board, 50 survived.
A Philippine Airlines A320-214 was flying from Manila to Bacolod. On landing, the plane "blew" to the right side of the runway. He rammed the airport fence and stopped in a small river. None of the 130 people on board were hurt.
It's easier to live in the sky (c)
I have been afraid of flying since childhood, and even though over the years it has become much easier to do, if I had a chance to get on the set of the film “Miracle on the Hudson” and check something on myself, then I probably would have died on the spot. And so, while watching the film, I just had goosebumps on my back, when the characters kept returning to the same episode with an emergency splashdown of the plane. And although the outcome of this flight is known from the very beginning, it only gets worse from each repetition over and over again. Something similar happened to me at the showing of Robert Zemeckis's The Walk: walking at great heights made me shudder. But the “Miracle on the Hudson”, along with the trembling of the body, also delivered a tremor of indignation to the soul.
Genre Drama, biography Country USA Director Clint Eastwood Producer Bruce Berman, Clint Eastwood, Frank Marshall Cast Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Michael O'Malley, Laura Linney, Anna Gunn and others Premiere in Russia September 8, 2016
It just seems that everyone loves and respects the heroes, but if you look at the inside of their work, it turns out that the state and services that need to pay huge penalties due to a plane crash, for example, are ready to find any reason not to do this. Chelsea Captain "Sully" Sullenberger rescued over 150 people on January 15, 2009 by landing a plane with two engines inoperative on the Hudson. On the street, New Yorkers showered him with thanks as he went to another hearing on his landing and tried to prove that he had not drowned state property in vain.
It was difficult to understand why the well-deserved, over-deserved Clint Eastwood had to take on the film adaptation of the events that took place on the Hudson. But he, apparently, has such a wave - to praise the true, real heroes, plus the story itself turned out to be close to the famous director. In his youth, he experienced similar events, urgently ending up in the Pacific Ocean, far from where he was going to fly. It was important for Eastwood to tell the audience not just the story of a miraculous salvation, but first of all about a long and painful trial, about which they tried to keep quiet for a long time. The director, despite his considerable age, managed to surprise the audience by shooting a positive picture full of emotions.
After watching it, it was surprising to learn that the screenwriter Todd Komarnika did not have a single worthwhile project in his filmography before The Miracle on the Hudson. I want to praise the script for a long time. He mixed all the ways of telling stories in the right proportions: the reportage truth is supplemented by inserts from Sally's past and the nightmares that haunt him, small episodes from the life of passengers help paint a complete picture and even create dramatic tension, although, I repeat, the outcome of the story is known. With the meager geography of the film: the hero moves from the hotel to the hearing and back, the locations change among themselves so often that the audience does not have time to get bored. A cyclically repeated action each time manages to show some new round in the events that have occurred. All this keeps the audience's attention until the end of the final credits. Yes, and the characters are well written: despite the fact that the central place in the film is given to the hero of Hanks, the creators also do not forget about the secondary characters.
Tom Hanks has once again played a great character. This year, the actor is really lucky for projects, because no matter what the film is, it’s always a good hit in the image. He will probably receive another nomination for the role of the brave captain of the aircraft, and quite deservedly so. He played modesty and restraint, which Hanks apparently "removed" from the real Sally. But he did it so casually that if it weren’t for the actor’s face, familiar to the smallest wrinkles, one could believe that we have Captain Sullenberger in front of us.
Aaron Eckhard in "Miracle on the Hudson" performs a secondary function. He, like his hero, makes sure that the character of Tom Hanks does not stumble and that no one attacks them. The actor confidently copes with the tasks assigned to him, although nothing more is required of him. And constantly pulls, unusual for a mustache. Laura Linney played another caring and worried wife in her career, who is not really needed, but without her the picture of the incident would have been shown to the audience one-sidedly. For connoisseurs of TV shows, the project has gathered quite familiar faces, and the most recognizable of them can be called Anna Gunn from the Breaking Bad project.
When watching the "Miracle on the Hudson" at times, tears welled up, because. crashed, and you sincerely empathize with the pilots, especially when they are trying to catch them in a lie. I don’t remember what else I was shaking like this with indignation and a sense of helplessness in front of the bureaucratic machine. The film evoked a full range of genuine emotions. And it became a pity that Russian filmmakers, shooting a modernized version of "Epipage", seized on the long-outdated version with a volcano. After all, it was possible to create a truly touching movie with much less money, which would intrigue not only with expensive special effects, but also with emotional intensity, sincerity and worthy acting work.
Cinematographer Tom Stern, who has been working with Eastwood for a long time, shot seemingly standard court and flight scenes very tensely, emotionally interactive episodes, and New York, which seems to be constantly used by everyone, opened up for me from a new, very beautiful side - from the height of a falling plane. It was this risky height, which threatened someone with death, that made it possible to show the city from unexpected angles. Previously unknown composer Christian Jacob composed a completely inconspicuous soundtrack, without pathetic chords and dramatic drops, as if impenetrably calm Captain Sullenberger controlled his hand. It was this musical form that helped the picture become even more emotional and soulful.
It is difficult to say how the picture looks in the usual format. It was shown to us in the IMAX hall, after all, special cameras were used on the set to transmit the effects in this ultra-clear format. IMAX cameras create such a convincing, lively and three-dimensional image without any 3D that the flights and falls that are obviously filmed by overlays look real. This explains both the attacks of aerophobia in the audience, and the holding of breath when the plane with passengers plunges into the Hudson.
Do not rush to leave immediately after the picture: at the end credits, Eastwood decided to introduce viewers to the real passengers of Flight 1549, and there is also a small part of the audio recording of the recorder, which helped to get to the bottom of the truth at the hearings.
"Miracle on the Hudson" is a real great movie that you want to talk about and watch again and again in the cinema to once again experience incredible emotions. Thanks to this film, the name of Captain Sully will be remembered all over the world, and not just in the USA. The film lives up to the expectations placed on it and will definitely get into all the lists of the best films of the year, as well as collect a decent box office, a huge number of nominations and, I hope, prizes.
This event will certainly go down in the history of aviation, it will teach young American pilots and test the knowledge of the current flight crew.
As it should be in Hollywood films, this story has a main character - a former military pilot, 57-year-old pilot Chesley Sullenberger, nicknamed Sally. And a worthy happy ending - after the plane he was flying landed on the water, all 150 passengers were saved.
Moreover, the pilot left the board, as befits a sea captain, the last. He examined the plane twice to make sure once again that people had left the sinking airship.
The American media reproduced the chronicle of the flight incident. At 15:26 local time, the Airbus A-320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport. But he did not manage to gain a given height. Having risen about 800 meters, 30-45 seconds after takeoff, the pilot reported an emergency situation - a collision of the aircraft with at least two birds. Passengers will become aware of this later - already on the ground. Those who were in the cabin, pinned down by seat belts, looking out of the windows with curiosity, described what happened in the same way - "something loudly banged, the plane staggered, and there was a smell of burning."
It is hard to imagine what people experienced when they realized that the liner, which was taking off, began to lose altitude sharply. Everyone understood that something was happening and it was not turbulence. Some passengers sitting closer to the tail saw flames burst from the engines and they began to smoke. It became unusually quiet. The words "fasten your seat belts" continued to burn on the scoreboard. At this critical moment, a message from the pilot about the upcoming landing on the water followed. The pilot warned passengers about a possible "strong blow".
What happened in the cockpit became known from the transcript of the recordings of Sally's conversations with the control room. Initially, the crew requested a landing at the airport of departure. However, it quickly became clear that a return was impossible. Then it was decided to reach the nearest runway in the state of New Jersey, neighboring New York. But after about three minutes of flight, the pilot transmitted to the ground that he would not be able to keep the car in the air. Then the idea came up to land the plane on the only open area suitable in size - in the park, located along the route of the plane. But the control room found out that the risk is too great, because the park is being repaired. The last chance to save passengers was landing on the water, in the Hudson, which separates Manhattan from New Jersey. This decision was forced and, according to experts, very difficult.
“The huge difficulty lies in the fact that the airbus, which Sally piloted, has engines located under the wings. When landing on the water, he had to make sure that the engines did not touch the water. Otherwise, the liner would simply bury its nose in the water. Therefore, the pilot had to do all to glide on the surface of the water for as long as possible, keeping the nose of the aircraft above the surface," professional pilots explain the intricacies of landing in the Hudson.
Another serious danger was represented by ships that the airbus could collide with. The low water temperature - now minus five degrees in the Hudson - and a strong current exacerbated the situation. It is not surprising that, upon learning of the successful landing, New York State Governor David Paterson angrily called what happened "a miracle over the Hudson."
However, there is one detail that Americans hardly remember today. About the panic that arose in Manhattan when people saw a liner falling on skyscrapers. About the rumors that appeared in the first hours after the disaster, about a possible "Arab trace" in this incident. However, the authorities reacted quickly, informing the population that the terrorists had nothing to do with this case.
Everything that follows is well known. In anticipation of rescuers, passengers climbed onto the wing of the aircraft. Five people who sought medical attention were taken to hospitals. According to Lorrie, the wife of pilot Sullenberger, he called her when it was all over, and briefly said: "There was an accident. But everything is over."
Mooring from the sky
On August 21, 1963, a Soviet aircraft made the world's first successful splashdown in Leningrad on a flight from Tallinn to Moscow..
Already during takeoff at the Tallinn airport, the commander of the Tu-124, Viktor Mostovoy, discovered that the front landing gear was jammed in a semi-retracted position.
Mostovoy reported on the radio about the problem to dispatchers. However, due to thickening fog, an emergency landing in Tallinn was banned. Mostovoy was offered to land the car on the spare unpaved runway of the Pulkovo airfield in Leningrad, - recalls Vladimir Dmitriev, Honored Pilot of the USSR. - While firefighters and doctors arrived at the place of the alleged landing of an emergency airliner, the plane circled over the city at an altitude of 400 meters, developing a fuel supply of up to one ton. Mostovoy received such an order from Georgy Narbut, the head of flights at Pulkovo Airport. Each lap took 15 minutes.
On the seventh lap, the flight mechanic reported to Mostovoy about the fuel supply, which remains more than necessary according to the instructions. And landing in violation of the rules with a margin of at least 1200-1300 kilograms of fuel threatened the passengers with death. "I'm going for one more lap," the commander of the ship announced on the radio to the ground. He did not suspect that the plane's fuel gauges were faulty. When the airport was 21 kilometers away, the fuel supply was exhausted: the aircraft's left engine stopped.
To shorten the distance to the airfield, the crew decided to fly over the historic center of the city. However, flying over the "headquarters of the revolution" - Smolny, the second engine also failed. Fortunately, the Neva was below, - says Dmitriev. - "Vitya, get on the water," Vasily Chechenov, the co-pilot, a former hydro-pilot, shouted to his comrade.
And then Mostovoy made the only right decision in the current situation: to land the plane on the surface of the water - between the Bolsheokhtinsky and Finland bridges. To avoid panic, the 27-year-old ship's commander ordered the crew members to distract the passengers with conversations. While Mostovoy was planning in a heavy car without fuel over the water surface, the stewards told the passengers about the weather in the city on the Neva.
The plane flew a couple of meters over the Alexander Nevsky bridge - at that time still under construction. Workers standing on complex metal structures then fell into the water in horror, - recalls Nadezhda Stepankova, an eyewitness to the events. - A few tens of meters from the Finland Bridge, the plane plopped into the river.
The passengers were happy. But their joy was premature. When landing, the Tu-124 received a significant hole and almost immediately began to take on water. Only thanks to the actions of Yuri Porshin, the captain of the tug, who hooked the metal cable to the pilots' helm and towed the aircraft to the shore, the plane did not sink to a depth of 13 meters.
It was "moored" to the berth of the Severny Press plant in such a way that one of the wings lay on land, forming a gangway, Stepankova recalls. - Passengers with children were the first to leave, followed by women, men with things and the crew. The aircraft commander was the last to land. He was very calm, but completely gray-haired.
Reward or punish? - such a question arose before the Main Directorate of the Civil Air Fleet of the USSR immediately after the accident.
Viktor Mostovoy was expelled from the Tallinn squadron, as they said - for sloppiness. Allegedly, due to his fault, the Tu-124 with passengers on board at first almost collapsed on the historical center of the city, and then almost went to the bottom, - continues Vladimir Dmitriev. - Only after the scandal reached the Central Committee of the CPSU, and the heroism of the pilot became known in the West, Mostovoy was awarded the Order of the Red Star, and his crew members were awarded medals.
DOSSIER "RG"
The most amazing landings
July 17, 1972 Moscow. The Tu-134 aircraft of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation performed test flights from the Sheremetyevo airfield. During the landing approach, two engines failed at the same time. The commander landed the aircraft on the water surface of the canal. Moscow. No harm done.
August 12, 1997. Thessaloniki. The plane "Boeing-727-230" of the Greek airline Olympic Airways performed a local passenger flight from Athens to Thessaloniki. The aircraft was flown by very experienced pilots (both captains of aircraft taken from other flights for this flight). The weather at the destination airport was the most difficult: a thunderstorm, wind gusts near the ground up to 28 knots, heavy clouds, heavy rain. The plane landed with a significant flight: after flying the first third of the runway, it rolled out of the runway. The nose of the aircraft hung over the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea. The aircraft received significant damage. The crew and passengers - 35 people - survived.
November 23, 1996. Comoros. The Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767-260ER was on an international passenger flight from Addis Ababa bound for Abidjan. Shortly after entering Kenyan airspace, three terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded to fly to Australia. On approach to Comoros, the aircraft ran out of fuel, the engines stopped. The pilots attempted to make a controlled water landing in closed shallow water 500 meters from Le Galava beach. However, the left engine and wingtip hit the water and the aircraft was destroyed. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed.
March 22, 1998. Philippines. Philippine Airlines' newest A320-214 aircraft was operating a domestic passenger flight from Manila Airport to Bacolod Airport. The aircraft took off with the first engine thrust reverser deactivated. The flight went well. But during landing, due to asymmetric thrust, the plane "blew" to the right side of the runway. The plane collided with the airport fence and stopped in a small river. Luckily, none of the 130 people on board were hurt. The plane was not subject to restoration.
, Saint Petersburg
On February 18, 1945, during an offensive operation in Germany, Alexander Pokryshkin successfully landed a plane on the Breslau-Berlin motorway. The 9-meter-wide highway was too narrow for a regular landing of a combat vehicle. However, the pilot took the risk. Pokryshkin's maneuver became a textbook and entered aviation textbooks.
Commander Example
Guards Colonel Pokryshkin then commanded a fighter division. An offensive was launched on Berlin. The front line quickly moved away from the field airfields, and it was extremely difficult to equip new runways because of the mud. Our fighters spent almost all their fuel to reach the front line, stay over the battlefield for a few minutes and quickly return. And the troops needed air support. The divisional commander went on a risky experiment, deciding to use the autobahn as a runway. On his "Aircobra" he landed perfectly. And after the commander, other pilots mastered this technique. This was the only case in the history of world aviation when an entire fighter air division successfully operated from a section of an ordinary highway for a month and a half, without having a single accident.
But not only in military, but also in civil aviation, there were cases of successful landing outside the airfield in extreme conditions. In some of them, the pilots performed a miracle.
Landing on the highway
Light aircraft landed somewhat successfully on the highway. October 4, 2013 in San Jose (USA), a pilot carrying a passenger in a Bellanca 7ECA aircraft discovered engine problems that could lead to an accident. After contacting the air traffic controller, he explained the situation and asked permission to land on the highway. The air traffic controller contacted the traffic police, who urgently, despite the rush hour, vacated the area necessary for landing. The pilot landed his Bilanka safely.
There were also landings on busy highways. In this case, success depended not only on the skill of the pilot, but also on the reaction of the drivers.
August 20, 2012 a light aircraft that had engine failures landed on the Riga-Ventspils (Latvia) highway. In this case, no one was hurt. True, the plane damaged the landing gear, since the landing took place in an emergency mode. As a result of the incident, there was a multi-kilometer traffic jam.
April 5, 2010 a similar incident occurred in Australia. At the same time, the 18-year-old pilot used the reserve lane, which was not loaded. The slightly dented plane was removed from the track with the help of a tow truck.
August 25, 2009 the landing of the Cessna in California gave the tinkerers more work to do. The novice pilot did not calculate the amount of fuel needed for the flight. As a result, the engine stopped, and the plane glided onto the highway. I did not have time to get away from this unexpected meeting, only one car - VW Golf. But all these, we repeat, were light aircraft.
On the water
The chance to save several dozen people when splashing down a heavy passenger liner is quite real. Throughout history, 5 such cases have been recorded.
In the evening October 15, 1956 Pan Am's Boeing 377 Stratocruiser took off from Honolulu for San Francisco. There were 24 passengers and 7 crew members on board. On October 16, 2 out of 4 engines failed over the Pacific Ocean. The commander of the liner decided to land on the water. As a result, no one on board was hurt, except for scratches and bruises. Passengers and crew managed to get to the life rafts before the plane went to the bottom. An hour later, the rescued were picked up by a coast guard boat.
August 21, 1963 On the Neva, within the boundaries of Leningrad, the Tu-124 airliner of the Aeroflot company, en route from Tallinn to Moscow, splashed down. While working out fuel over the city for an emergency landing at Pulkovo Airport (the landing gear jammed near the aircraft), the crew encountered a new problem. Both engines failed. The pilots glided into the water. As a result, everyone survived - 45 passengers and 7 crew members.
November 22, 1968 Japan Airlines DC-8, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco, splashed down half a kilometer from the American coast. However, this was not an emergency landing, but a flight error. In conditions of dense fog, the captain was guided by the readings of the radio altimeter, which, as it turned out, gave an error of 60 meters. And the pilot, who decided that he was landing on the runway, splashed down very skillfully. As a result, none of the 96 passengers and 11 crew members received even minor bruises.
July 17, 1972 Tu-134, owned by the Ministry of Aviation, was undergoing a test flight, which investigated the extreme operating modes of electrical equipment. Suddenly, the network "cut down", the fuel pumps stopped, the engines stalled. The liner was landed on the Ikshinsky reservoir. None of the 5 crew members were hurt.
January 15, 2009 Airbus A320 US Airways, flying from New York to Seattle, encountered a flock of wild geese. Both engines stalled as a result of the damage. The ship's commander, Chessley Sullenberger, a former military pilot, landed the liner with 150 passengers on board on the Hudson River. All survived. True, 5 people were seriously injured.
In the taiga
And finally, the most incredible event that took place September 7, 2010 in Russia.
The Tu-154 liner, owned by the Alrosa airline, made a flight from the city of Udachny to the Moscow Domodedovo airport with 72 passengers on board and 9 crew members. At an altitude of 10,600 meters, the power supply disappeared. In connection with this, navigation systems, communications and transfer pumps stopped working. There was fuel left in the supply tank for 30 minutes of flight. All attempts to start the backup generator were unsuccessful. The crew began to look for a place for an emergency landing.
On the ground, having lost contact with the liner, its location was determined by an automatic emergency beacon.
And a miracle happened - the pilots “came across” to the abandoned airfield of the Izhma airport (Komi Republic), which was used as a helipad. Runway length of 1325 meters was short for a heavy liner. However, the head of the heliport, Sergei Sotnikov, kept the runway in working order, clearing it of bushes and young trees. Even if it wasn't part of his job.
As a result, the liner landed successfully, despite the fact that, due to inoperative flaps, the landing speed was significantly higher than normalized. Roll-out beyond the strip, where the bushes and low forests began, amounted to 160 meters. No harm done.
Sergei Sotnikov was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, II degree. Ship commander Yevgeny Novoselov and co-pilot Andrei Lamanov were awarded the title of Hero of Russia. The remaining 7 crew members were awarded the Order of Courage.
On Thursday, January 15, a US Airways Airbus A-320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport on a flight to Charlotte, North Carolina. However, just a few minutes after takeoff, due to damage to both engines, he had to make an emergency landing - right in the waters of the Hudson, not far from Manhattan, among the skyscrapers. 150 passengers and 5 crew members were miraculously saved, and instead of a new September 11, America found a new hero.
Official information about the causes of the emergency has not yet been received, but there is no doubt that the experts will confirm the words of the pilot. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, who was at the helm, just a few minutes after takeoff, told air traffic controllers that the plane had hit a flock of birds - according to various sources, geese or gulls, two of which damaged the A-320 engines.
Initially, the pilot wanted to return to the New York airport, and the controllers gave their permission for this. He then announced that he would land the plane at the airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, which happened to be closer. After that, communication with him was interrupted.
Passengers of flight 1549 said that at the moment of collision with a flock, the airbus shook, and they heard a loud bang and smelled smoke, some of them could see fire through the windows. A few seconds later, the pilot announced over the speakerphone: "Prepare for impact! We are landing on the water."
People who were in high-rise buildings near the Hudson could observe an amazing picture: the plane, which managed to rise to a height of about a kilometer, began to descend directly over the George Washington Bridge and landed on the surface of the river. One of the witnesses said that when the airbus splashed down, there was such a loud splash and so much water flew to the sides that at first he did not understand what had happened, and thought that this ship had crashed. Another from the windows of his office saw a plane descending and decided that the events of September 11, 2001 were repeating.
Many of the eyewitnesses of the incident thought that the plane would instantly sink in the icy waters of the Hudson - however, on the contrary, it stayed afloat and, rotating counterclockwise, began to drift south, obeying a powerful current. After the emergency exits were opened, water began to seep on board the ship - some of the passengers began to climb onto the seats with their feet, others put on life jackets and found themselves waist-deep in water.
When the people on the plane realized that the splashdown was successful, they began to climb onto the wings and roof of the airliner, which, taking in water, began to gradually sink. Rescue boats and police boats, as well as the Coast Guard and private ferries that ply the Hudson, immediately went to their aid. Divers in special suits that protect from the cold were delivered to the scene by helicopter.
For the next hour, America watched the television coverage of the rescue operation with bated breath. It had to be finished quickly - with the onset of twilight, it began to get noticeably colder. Special services worked flawlessly - soon all passengers, including at least one child, as well as two pilots and three flight attendants, were evacuated from the aircraft. The crew commander left the plane last - before that, he went around the cabin twice to make sure that no one was left in it.
As a result of the incident, no one died - and this became the main sensation. It was reported that out of 155 people, 78 were injured, but most of them were not injured, but frostbite: it was a frosty day, the air temperature in New York dropped to minus eight degrees Celsius, and the temperature of the water, in which some passengers spent enough time, was slightly above zero. The victims were taken to hospitals in Manhattan and New Jersey, but most of them did not need long-term treatment. Meanwhile, the half-sunken Airbus was towed down the Hudson and moored in New York Harbor off Battery Park.
The 57-year-old pilot was the protagonist of what many, including New York Gov. David Patterson, dubbed the "Miracle on the Hudson." Crew members later said that Chesley Sullenberger remained absolutely calm when he landed the plane on the water. Experts interviewed by the American media say splashdown is an extremely difficult maneuver. If the pilot had miscalculated the angle of descent, the airbus would have broken its wings and rolled over on its side. In addition, pilots are not taught to land passenger planes on the water. However, witnesses of the incident had the impression that the plane was completely under the control of the pilot, as if the surface of the Hudson was a flat landing area.
When the media unearthed the biography of the A-320 pilot, it turned out that Chesley Sullenberger was completely suitable for the role of the new hero of the nation. He is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy and two other universities, served seven years in the US Air Force and flew F-4 fighter jets. After that, he worked for an Air Crash Investigation Service and participated in several investigations by the National Transportation Safety Board. He joined US Airways in 1980, and Sullenberger has over 40 years of flying experience.
In addition, the pilot also turned out to be a businessman - he founded the company Safety Reliability Methods, which provides advice on safety in aviation. Also, "Sally" (the entire American press began to call this friendly nickname of the pilot in a fit of delight) taught a course of rules of conduct in extreme situations to hundreds of his colleagues and helped scientists from NASA work on a report on the conditions for the occurrence of an emergency in aviation. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the pilot masterfully coped with landing the plane on the water, a community of Sally fans was opened on the Facebook website in a matter of hours after the disaster, and Airbus passengers in their interviews did not stop thanking him for their salvation.
The feat of the pilot looks even more convincing if you remember that very few forced splashdowns ended safely for all air passengers. Some American media, in contrast, recalled the history of the Boeing 737 aircraft
Air Florida airlines. In January 1982, he got into a snowstorm and, due to icing and pilot error, crashed into a bridge over the Potomac River. Then 74 of the 79 people on board were killed, as well as four people who were driving in their cars across the bridge.
However, Lenta.ru suggests recalling a much more appropriate event - the Tu-124 landing on the Neva in August 1963. The crew of the plane en route from Tallinn to Moscow discovered that the front landing gear of the airliner had jammed. It was decided to land him at the Pulkovo airport. The plane began to fly around Leningrad, running out of fuel, and when one of the engines failed due to a lack of fuel, the crew was allowed to make a through flight through the city. However, when the Tu-124 flew over the very center of St. Petersburg, the second engine stopped working, and the crew, led by Viktor Mostov, had no choice but to splash down on the Neva - in the area of the Finland Railway Bridge. All 52 people on board the plane survived.
