Forced landing of the plane on the water. "Get ready to strike!" The True Story of the Miracle on the Hudson

It is unlikely that anyone dreams of being on an airplane flying with failed engines, caught in a storm or a strong side wind. But all this and much more happens to aircraft from time to time, and then the pilots have to use all their skills and a lot of physical strength to level the liner, bring it to the airfield and successfully land it without allowing human casualties. Next, we will talk about the 10 most incredible landings of aircraft.

1. Flight over the mouth of the volcano (1982)

Handing the passenger a glass of drink, the stewardess quietly looked out the window and made sure that the pilots were right. The engines of the liner glowed like strobe lights. And soon a suffocating smoke smelling of sulfur began to spread throughout the cabin. There were 15 crew members and 248 passengers on board the Boeing 747, and none of them noticed that the plane flew through a cloud of volcanic ash, suddenly thrown up by the awakened Indonesian volcano Galunggung. Tiny abrasive particles of ash damaged the skin of the aircraft and clogged its engines.
The plane flying from London to Auckland risked not making it. A huge liner with turned off engines was gliding over the ocean at night, and mountains rose directly in its course south coast islands of Java. It was necessary to quickly choose: to put the liner on the water or risk reaching the Jakarta airport, but for this it was necessary to overcome the approaching peaks. While the commander and the Indonesian controller calculated the distance and aerodynamic capabilities of the aircraft, the flight engineer and co-pilot continued to try to start the engines. They were lucky - the fourth engine was struggling, spitting out pumice, and still it worked! In the same way, it was possible to revive two more engines. With such thrust, it was already possible to reach the airfield, however, when the plane began to gradually descend for landing, the pilots noticed that the windshield, scratched by sharp particles, had become dull. In addition, there was no automatic landing at the Jakarta airport.
In the end, the British pilots were able to safely land the liner, looking at the area through a couple of tiny transparent sections preserved on the windshield. None of the people in this scrape was hurt.

2. Miracle on the Hudson (2009)

On January 15, 2009, an Airbus A-320 with 150 passengers on board took off from La Guardia Airport in the direction of New York - Seattle. Just a minute and a half later, he collided with a flock of birds, after which both engines of the liner instantly stalled. The plane at that moment had already risen to 970 meters. It was no longer possible to return back, since there would not be enough speed and altitude gained, which would be enough for 1.5 minutes of planning.
The first pilot made an instant decision to head for the Hudson River, which at this point is very wide and has a fairly straight course. It was important to reach the water surface and level the plane. As a result, the airbus plunged into the icy water and began to plan among the ice floes. Almost all people survived, and only the stewardess and 5 poorly fastened passengers were injured. They should be grateful to former military pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who once piloted the Phantom.

3. Heavenly convertible (1988)

In 1988, an old Boeing made a local flight in Hawaii from Hilo to Honolulu. Due to a loosely closed door, part of the hull was destroyed (the wind “licked off” 35 sq. M of the skin). Explosive decompression occurred at an altitude of 7300 m at a speed of 500 km/h. Instantly, 90 lightly dressed passengers were hit by a wind 3 times faster than a hurricane, and even icy (-45 degrees). Although the pilots quickly dropped speed to 380 km / h and altitude, but in a short time, 65 people managed to frostbite and get various injuries. And after 12 minutes, with a deviation from the schedule of only 1 minute, the heavenly convertible landed in Honolulu. But there were no casualties here - the unfortunate stewardess was thrown overboard at the time of the destruction of the fuselage.

4. Race with death (1988)

On December 31, 1988, the Tu-134 crew was in such a hurry to celebrate the New Year that they began to descend along a too steep glide path, although the instruments screamed that the speed was too high, and the ground was approaching too fast. The pilots, defying all instructions, released the landing gear at a speed of 460 km / h, and it was pointless to release the flaps at such a speed, since they would simply be torn off by the air flow. At the time of touchdown, the speed was 415 km/h (permissible maximum 330 km/h). Thus, a landing speed record was set for the liner. civil aviation.
Landing at this speed aircraft the length of the runway was not enough and, despite all the efforts of the dashing crew, the plane proceeded further, stopping 1.5 meters from the exit to the ground on the safety strip. Surprisingly, the passengers were not injured, but the pilots had to answer to the fullest extent of the law.

5. Plane without a nose (2017)

The plane, heading from Istanbul to Cypriot Ercan, collided with strong winds and hail. At a 1.5-kilometer altitude, the nose and glass of the pilot's cabin were blown off. As a result, the pilots completely lost the opportunity to look ahead, and at the airport everyone was desperately waiting for the inevitable. First pilot - Ukrainian pilot Akopov decided to return. When landing, he tilted the side slightly so that he could see the strip through the side glass. The airport dispatchers and other crew members also worked well, as a result, the ship with 121 passengers and 6 crew members landed successfully.

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6. Taiga miracle (2010)

In September 2010, a TU-154B aircraft en route from Yakutia to Moscow landed in the Siberian wilderness. After flying for 3.5 hours after takeoff, the aircraft suddenly lost power, so the fuel pumps and on-board instruments froze, and the ability to control the elements of the wings was lost. In the fuselage there was a supply tank with 3.3 tons of operational kerosene, but this would only be enough for half an hour of flight. The pilots lowered the liner by 3000 meters in order to visually search for a suitable landing site. They checked the horizontality with a glass of water. They were lucky to notice a short (1350 m) concrete strip of the Izhma airport, and for the landing of the Tu-154B it was required 2 times longer. Moreover, it was abandoned back in 2003, using it only for landing helicopters. The matter was complicated by the fact that the pilots could not release the flaps, so the landing speed at 100 km / h exceeded the calculated one.
The pilots managed to land the car on "3 points", but then the poorly controlled plane rolled out into a low spruce forest, located 160 m further than the end of the concrete strip. Fortunately, none of the passengers and crew were injured. Immediately, the plane was repaired on its own, and then it was able to fly to Samara for a detailed inspection.

7. Landing without a commander (1990)

June 10, 1990 aircraft british airways flew from Birmingham to Malaga. After 13 minutes of flight, a poorly installed windshield fell out, as a result of which the air escaping from the aircraft picked up the commander and threw it halfway through the hole formed. The pilot was pressed against the fuselage outside the cockpit with his back, while his legs were stuck between the control panel and the helm. The cockpit door was also torn off, the fragments of which fell on the navigation and radio panels.
The flight attendant, who was in the cockpit, grabbed the commander, preventing him from taking off completely, and the co-pilot began an emergency descent and gave a distress signal. The co-pilot managed to land emergency liner in Southampton. All passengers and crew survived, only the commander and flight attendant were injured. As for the commander, he was found to have several fractures, hematomas and frostbite. The flight attendant froze his left eye, face and dislocated his shoulder.

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8. Incident in Leningrad (1963)

An aircraft flying from Tallinn to Moscow reported to the ground that, after takeoff, the nose landing gear was stuck in a half-retracted position. There was a landing "on the belly", and the nearest airport where such a trick could be created was the airport in Pulkovo, where the plane was sent. Having flown up to the airport, the plane began to circle over it, producing fuel, and in order to speed up the process, it did it at an altitude of 500 m. At the same time, the crew tried in every possible way to unlock the chassis with a metal pole. Carried away by such a thing, the crew did not notice how the left engine stopped due to lack of fuel.
The first and second pilots rushed to the controls, immediately received permission to fly over the city and headed straight for the runway. Then the second engine also froze, and there was not even a margin of altitude to leave the city. Then the crew commander made the only possible decision - to land emergency board on the water surface of the Neva. The plane flew over the Liteiny Bridge at an altitude of 90 m, over the Bolsheokhtinsky Bridge it had already dropped to 30 meters, just a few meters it flew over the Alexander Nevsky Bridge under construction and, almost hitting the tugboat, flopped into the water. The splashdown was soft - all passengers and crew members were alive.

9. Impressive Airbus landing in stormy weather (2017)

Strong winds often blow at the airport in Dusseldorf, Germany. Recently, the giant Airbus A380, owned by Emirates, had to land in such conditions. The very approach to the ground in such conditions still goes more or less smoothly, but after touching the chassis runway problems start right away. So this airbus landing has become unusual and difficult. To reduce the impact of strong side wind gusts, pilots are forced to land at an angle. When the pilot began to level the liner, a sudden strong gust of side wind began to rock the colossus from side to side. So the pilot aligns the ship, and it flaps its wings - a bewitching sight. Finally, the pilot managed to cope with the naughty giant and align his position with wind gusts reaching 22 m / s.

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10 Faulty Chassis (2016)

In Kazakhstan, at the international airport of the capital of the country Astana emergency landing was able to safely fly the Foker-100 aircraft without the front landing gear. At the same time, none of the passengers and crew members total number 121 people were not injured. Cause emergency there was a malfunction in the mechanism of the front landing gear. The aircraft commander had to land it without this rather important landing element. The front pillar did not fully come out of the hatch, so it was impossible to rely on it when landing. Eyewitnesses excitedly told how the plane, after touching the ground, pecked the ground with its nose and then gnashed on the concrete of the runway for hundreds of meters. From strong friction, sparks and black smoke fell from it. Fortunately, the plane did not catch fire. Surprisingly, after this landing, damage to the hull of the aircraft was minimal.

November 22, 1968 passenger aircraft DC-8 Japan Airlines (Japan Airlines), registration number JA8032, call sign Shiga, PIC - Kohei Aso, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco, made an emergency landing in low cloud conditions, splashing down half a kilometer from American coast. None of the 96 passengers and 11 crew members were injured during the accident.

July 17, 1972 Tu-134 aircraft, board USSR-65607 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, performed a test flight. FAC - Vyacheslav Kuzmenko. During the flight in the holding area, the fuel pumps of both engines turned off. The engines have stopped. The relatively low altitude and the expended battery power did not allow them to be launched in flight. The plane made a splashdown on the water area of the Ikshinskoye reservoir, near the village of Bolshaya Chernaya. As a result of splashdown, the plane did not collapse and none of the 5 crew members was seriously injured.

June 2, 1976, in the afternoon, in simple weather conditions, when landing at the Zhuliany airport, the Yak-40 aircraft made an emergency landing outside the airfield, side number SSSR-87541 of the Lithuanian Civil Aviation Administration, which operated the flight Kaunas - Kyiv. KVS - Shtilyus V.S. At an altitude of 700 meters, having received an instruction from the dispatcher to take a height of 400 meters, the commander of the ship gave the command to the flight mechanic Sinkevicius to set the engines to idle and began to descend. At this time there was a simultaneous stop of three engines. An attempt by the crew to start the engines in flight failed. The crew decided to land on the water of the Dnieper. But the plane did not reach the river. The commander of the aircraft made an emergency landing with retracted landing gear in the swampy shallow water in the area of Osokorki, which is now a residential area of Kyiv, and then was a wasteland. The aircraft received minor damage. The crew and passengers were not injured.

August 8, 1988 An-12 military transport aircraft (535th OSAP, Rostov-on-Don) performed the task of transporting personnel from the Bataysk airfield to the Yeysk airfield after the party meeting in Bataysk. In flight, the flight engineer switched off the fuel supply from the floor tanks, which were filled for a long time and were not used. The kerosene in them settled and contained water. On the pre-landing straight, 3-4 kilometers from the runway, all four engines died out one by one. The crew tried to make an emergency landing in the estuary Sea of Azov in shallow water. The plane's landing gear hit the water and pecked with its nose. Upon impact with the water and the bottom, the fuselage split and partially sank into the water. cargo compartment, where most of the passengers were, filled with water mixed with kerosene. It was a laboratory aircraft, not suitable for transporting people. Inside the cabin there was equipment that blew off on impact, which became main reason death of people. 24 people died in this plane crash.

November 23, 1996 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 Boeing 767 flew from Addis Ababa to Abidjan, with stops in Nairobi, Brazzaville and Lagos. Shortly after entering air space Kenya, three terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded to head for Australia. On approach to the Comoros, the plane ran out of fuel, and the crew tried to land on the water in a shallow, quiet coast 500 meters from Le Galava beach. The plane caught the water with its left wing, rolled over and collapsed right in the water. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed, including the terrorists.

January 15, 2009 US Airways Airbus A320 flight 1549 from New York to Seattle with an intermediate stop in Charlotte ( North Carolina), FAC - Chesley Sullenberger, with 150 passengers on board, made an emergency landing on the water of the Hudson River in New York. Both engines failed during takeoff. All on board survived. Five people were seriously injured (the flight attendant suffered the most) and seventy-eight were minor.

The plane's emergency landing on the Hudson on January 15, 2009 will undoubtedly go down in world aviation history. The feat of the American pilot, who, despite the horrifying situation, was still able to save the lives of 150 passengers, will be discussed for a long time during the training of young representatives of aviation.

The emergency landing of the A320 on the Hudson was made by a former American pilot, who at that time was 57 years old - Chelsea Sullenberger. The pilot really showed incredible piloting skills, because he was able to land the plane on the water after the engines failed, and thereby saved the lives of everyone on board. After the fall of Chelsea, he was twice convinced that all passengers were safely able to leave the aircraft going to the bottom, and only after that he himself left the board of the sinking aircraft.

Feature film released recently "Miracle on the Hudson" detailing this emergency landing.

Poster for the film "Miracle on the Hudson"

After an investigation by the American media, the chronicle of the air crash was recreated:

A-320 started from air harbor New York La Guardia at 15 hours 26 minutes, however, he failed to gain the desired height.
After the airbus climbed to a height of about 800 meters, it took about 40-45 seconds for this, a message was received from the pilot. The report said the air transport was unable to avoid a collision with two birds.
Of course, this became known to everyone on board later, after the chronicle of the investigation was published. And at the moment of the collision, people just heard an incomprehensible knock and felt the smell of burning, which began to penetrate into the cabin.

All passengers rushed to the windows, and were horrified to find that the airbus began to rapidly lose altitude. It became clear to many that the cause of the loss of altitude is not turbulence, but some kind of emergency. Moreover, some people sitting closest to the tail of the airbus managed to see burning engines and black acrid smoke. And the alarming message on the scoreboard - "Fasten your seat belts" continued to burn, forcing horror and panic.

The pilot had no choice but to make a decision about the forced landing of the airbus, which he announced to the passengers. Since the plane's emergency landing on the Hudson could be "tough" to say the least, the pilot issued a message to prepare passengers for a possible strong blow. Everyone was ordered to sit in their seats, while choosing a safe posture, and fasten their seat belts.

Real footage taken by eyewitnesses

Pilot actions

What actions the pilot was taking at that moment and what generally happened in his cockpit became clear after the publication of the negotiations that the pilot had with the airport dispatcher:

assessing the current situation, Sally, such a nickname was given to the American pilot by colleagues at work, turned to the control room with a request for permission to make an emergency landing on the runway. However, the flames engulfed the airbus so rapidly that it became clear that there simply would not be enough time to return to the airfield;
the second solution that the controller and pilot began to consider was to fly to the state of New Jersey in order to land in the nearest air harbor. But only 3 minutes was enough for the pilot to understand that the plane would not be able to stay in the air for so long, which he reported to the control room;
on the way of the plane could be seen a playground in the park. The size of the site was suitable for the landing of an airbus, the area was completely open. Sully said that he would land the aircraft on this particular park area. But the dispatcher did not allow the plane to land in this place, since extensive repair work was carried out in this area, using overall equipment;
emergency landing of the aircraft on the water - only this remained for the pilot to try to save the lives of passengers and crew.

It was this decision that was made by the hero of American aviation.

Difficulty landing on water

According to experts, it was very risky and extremely difficult to make an emergency landing in the Hudson, which separates New Jersey from Manhattan, but the crew air transport just didn't see it. And since the plane continued to burn, the decision had to be made as soon as possible. Professional pilots noted several difficulties in landing an aircraft on the Hudson:

The main difficulty was in the design of the airbus, because its engines were located under the wing. And this meant that Sally had to make sure that they did not touch the water when landing. Otherwise, the plane would have gone into the water with all the people in a matter of seconds. To prevent the motors from touching the water, the pilot had to do the almost impossible - to make the massive airbus glide over the water surface for as long as possible and in no case allow the nose of the air transport to touch the surface.
Collision with ships. An emergency landing of the aircraft on the water could lead to a collision with ships that were on their scheduled flight. But on happy accident the falling airbus was able to avoid a terrible collision, since there was not a single ship or yacht in the Hudson at that moment. After the successful landing, the Governor of New York called this incident "a miracle that happened over the Hudson", and expressed his deep gratitude to the pilot for the feat, saving more than 150 human lives.

Shot from the film "Miracle on the Hudson"

How did the locals react to the crash?

Of course, the plane crash on the Hudson caused incredible panic among the inhabitants of Manhattan. And this is not at all surprising, because the picture of a burning plane reminds many of the actions of a terrorist organization. Some people immediately attributed this incident to the act of Arab terrorists, which caused a terrible panic. But you have to give credit local authorities who quickly and in an organized manner reassured the population, giving citizens truthful information about the incident and completely refuting the attitude of the terrorists to the crash of the airbus.

Passengers of the A-320, after the plane crashed on the Hudson, had only to wait for the rescuers who were called by ground services when assessing the situation. The Airbus pilot and crew members helped all passengers off the plane and onto the wing of the air transport in order to quickly transfer to rescue boats. Medical assistance was required only for five people, who were immediately taken to the hospital. And his wife, Lorrie, Sally reported the incident after it was over. According to his wife, Sullenberger called and said only two short phrases - “There was an accident on the way. Everything ended well for the passengers and crew.”

Unbelievable but true! Aircraft emergency landings

Facilities mass media often they trumpet about forced and emergency landings of aircraft caused by emergency situations on board. Such cases occur all over the world, from Northern to South Pole, no one and nothing is safe from them. So what are the reasons forcing the aircraft crew to make the decision to make an emergency landing? Which emergency situations can arise in the air, and will the emergency continue on the ground? The invaluable experience and skill of the pilot, control over the situation and calmness of both crew members and passengers - these are the "human factors" that are most important in the event of an accident. emergency situation aboard.

So, we present to your attention the most incredible cases of emergency landings of aircraft in extremely difficult circumstances, which, nevertheless, ended happily!

Statistics is a stubborn thing

In fact, it is not so rare that various problems arise on board aircraft. emergency situations, and according to statistics, this happens especially often during landing and landing. However, the device of modern airliners provides for everything possible problems, and are equipped with a number of protection systems thanks to which, in the event of an emergency or emergency, it is always possible to land the aircraft safely (without casualties!)

In total, experts name several types of landings. The first of them is a regular landing, when the conditions for landing and the operation of the equipment comply with the standards. The next type of landing is an abnormal or forced landing that occurs with a deviation from the norm, for example, with an insufficiently qualified crew, when the flight support system does not work in full, or under adverse weather conditions. And finally, the last type of landing is an emergency landing. An emergency landing is considered to be the landing of an aircraft in distress, or when there is real threat crew and passengers. Also, an emergency landing occurs when there is a lack of fuel or in bad weather conditions.

A splashdown on the Hudson

New York, January 2009 passenger airliner US Airwais - An Airbus A320 flight 1549 from New York to Charlotte with 150 passengers on board was forced to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River due to engine problems.

As it turned out, just a few seconds after taking off from the airport, the airliner collided with a flock of birds, followed by a series of pops in the left engine, after which a flame broke out in it, and the plane began to lose altitude. The 57-year-old commander of the ship, Chesley Sullenberger, immediately made the decision to make an emergency landing. But, since the plane was unable to reach any of the nearest airports, the crew directed it to the Hudson River, and warned passengers about the imminent splashdown.

Due to the fact that the liner did not have time to develop great speed and rise high into the air, it was possible to prevent the destruction of the fuselage at the moment of contact with the surface of the water. Thus, during splashdown, the aircraft lost only one engine. After the aircraft landed on the water, the passengers climbed onto the wings of the aircraft, from where they were immediately removed by rescuers of boats that urgently arrived at the place and were nearby river trams who brought them to shore.

Thanks to the experience and skill of the crew commander, out of 150 passengers and 5 crew members, no one died, only a few people were injured and hypothermic, since in New York that day the air temperature was -6 ° C, and the water temperature in which the passengers I had to stand knee-deep, waiting for rescuers, did not exceed +2°C. A few minutes after the completion of the operation to rescue the victims, the plane went under water.

After this incredible incident, talk about the pilot who safely splashed down the huge liner did not subside for a long time.

And the information that Chesley Sullenberger, who has been a US Airways pilot since 1980, had previously served in the Air Force for seven years, where he was a fighter pilot, received wide publicity. He also took part in air crash investigations and worked as a flight instructor. In addition, Sullenberger is the owner of Safety Reliability Methods, a consulting firm that assists clients with in-flight safety.

Although landing huge liners water rarely ends well, there are many cases like this. Among them, one can single out the splashdown on the Neva of the passenger Tu-124 in 1963, when all the crew members and passengers, without exception, remained alive.

In the former USSR, there were two more cases of emergency splashdowns

One of them occurred in the Moscow Sea in the summer of 1972. During the testing of the Tu-134 emergency power supply, the crew deliberately turned off the generators, not taking into account the fact that when switching to emergency power supply, fuel is not supplied automatically, and it must be manually pumped using a pump. In the plane, both engines left without fuel died out, and the pilots had to land on the water. The splashdown was successful, and the aircraft, thanks to its sealed design, remained afloat. No harm done.

The next story of an emergency landing on water occurred in 1976 near Kiev, when the Yak-40 liner had to be landed directly on the swamp. Apparently, the cause of the emergency was the accidental transfer of the aircraft engine control knobs to the "STOP" position. This crash landing was also without casualties. It was after this incident that a special blocking bar began to be installed in aircraft, which does not allow the engines to be stopped during the flight.

Safe landing at the Warsaw airfield

After the incredible landing of a Polish airliner at the Warsaw airport on November 2, 2011, this topic did not leave the television screens and the front pages of printed publications for a long time.

Passenger aircraft of LOT Airlines - Boeing 767, flying from the USA to the capital of Poland, made an emergency landing in international airport named after Chopin. The situation was caused by a power failure, as a result of which the chassis did not extend.

The plane circled over the airport for a long time, the emergency landing procedure was planned in the air and thoroughly prepared. Thanks to the coordinated and efficient actions of the pilots, the Boeing was successfully landed "on its belly", and none of the 231 passengers on board the liner was injured. Despite the fact that experts did not rule out the tragic ending of an emergency landing, fortunately, a catastrophe was avoided. The passengers of the plane did not even fully realize how dangerous and emergency the situation was, and practically did not feel that the landing gear was missing. They only felt an unusual crack, and noted that the landing was soft. The firefighters, who had sat down “on their belly”, for reinsurance, filled it with foam, thereby eliminating the possibility of fire.

Following an emergency landing, nearby flights were canceled and the airport was closed to receive the faulty airliner.

The landing, which saved the lives of 10 crew members and 221 passengers, ended safely thanks to the professionalism and composure of 53-year-old pilot Tadeusz Wron, who has worked in civil aviation for more than 30 years.

Crash landing on an abandoned runway

In the fall of 2010, the TU-154M aircraft of the airline company AK Alrosa, en route from Yakutia to Moscow, made an emergency landing in Komi. Due to the failure of navigation and electrical equipment, the crew of the aircraft was forced to land the aircraft almost blindly - the pilots could not even determine the exact location of the aircraft, and there was only thirty minutes of fuel left for the flight. After the plane left the zone of low cloud cover, the crew noticed a swamp, into which it was impossible to land, the crew continued to search for the site. After the next turn of the vessel, the commander noticed an abandoned strip, where he directed the helm.

The landing was made on the old airport runway, which Lately intended only for helicopters. The landing was slightly softened by young trees that grew on an abandoned runway, but due to the failure of electrical equipment, the plane could not slow down on a runway of 1,200 meters, and was taken out into the forest for 150-200 meters. There were 72 passengers on board the plane, none of them were seriously injured. (Perhaps it was this case that was taken as the basis for the film Yolki-2, they are painfully similar).

When the fate of the plane that fell into the forest was being decided, locals jokingly offered to convert an abandoned ship into a bar-restaurant.

Other cases and causes of emergency landings

In November 2011, a passenger plane crashed in Dubai. Airbus liner A380, owned by the Australian airline Qantas. The crew was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine problems. According to the instructions, the pilots of the liner decided to turn off the problematic engine and commit emergency landing. None of the 283 people on board were injured.

A month earlier, a company liner flying from Istanbul Turkish Airlines, upon landing at an Indian airport, slid off the runway due to heavy rain. On Airbus ship 340 were 104 people, all were urgently evacuated, there were no casualties.

After a little analysis, we note that the most common cause of an emergency landing is the ingress of birds into the aircraft engine.

Chassis problems are not uncommon. And the main dangers are depressurization and ignition of the cockpit in the air. However, all these troubles can be dealt with. And most importantly - often without victims.

History remembers cases when smoke in the cockpit led to an emergency landing with a happy ending. And problems with ventilation and air conditioning systems or partial depressurization of the aircraft cabin were eliminated in the air.

In addition to the causes of emergency landings for technical reasons, such as a power failure or a low oil level in the engine, there were also not quite standard cases. One of these was an emergency landing due to a peculiar smell coming from the kitchen compartment in the tail section of the aircraft.

Landing forced or emergency

Emergency landing, unlike emergency, is a fairly common occurrence. A forced landing is the landing of an aircraft without any flight accidents, outside the destination, due to a malfunction of the on-board systems or other factors. For example, such as the closure of the destination airfield due to adverse weather conditions. Often cases of controlled forced landings are presented as emergency, which can lead to the development of aerophobia in impressionable natures. But, despite the fears, hardly anyone will refuse transport, which can cover huge distances between continents in just a few hours.

Today it is almost impossible to imagine life without air travel. Anything can happen in the air, just like on the ground. The main thing to remember is that on board an airliner, as well as in life, different situations can develop, and if we cannot influence them, then at least we should not allow them to influence us. You should trust the professionalism of the pilots, follow the instructions of the crew, in no case should you panic. And always be aware that complex, emergency situations in the air do not always end in emergency incidents on the ground.

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 befits a Hollywood movie, this story has main character- 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 New York's neighboring state of New Jersey. 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. Low temperature the waters—it was now minus five degrees in the Hudson—and the strong current made matters worse. 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 applied for medical care 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 USSR immediately after the accident.

Viktor Mostovoy was expelled from the Tallinn squadron, as they said - for sloppiness. Allegedly, through his fault, the Tu-124 with passengers on board at first almost collapsed on historical Center cities, 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 Boeing-727-230 aircraft of the Greek airline Olympic Airways was performing a local passenger flight from Athens to Thessaloniki. The aircraft was flown by very experienced pilots (both commanders 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 runway, skidded off the runway. The nose of the plane hung over the coastline 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