First landing on the water. "We're on the water." Evaluation of the suitability of closed water spaces for landing. forced landing on the river

It is believed that landing an aircraft on the water is an easier way out of emergency on board the plane, but experts believe that everything is not so simple. Successful splashdown of an airliner depends on several very important factors, the influence of which is not always positive.

Factors of successful landing of an aircraft at sea

An emergency situation that occurs on board an aircraft and requires the immediate landing of the aircraft may arise for various reasons. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this happens for technical reasons, due to the failure of on-board equipment.

According to many experts, the successful splashdown of an aircraft depends on the following fundamental factors:

weather conditions;
aircraft type;
pilot skill.

Complexity similar situations is that all these factors must be taken into account by the commander and evaluated almost instantly, tk. seconds count. The lives of the crew and passengers depend on the correctness of the decision he makes.

Weather

In difficult weather conditions, when an emergency landing is carried out in rough seas with strong winds, the crew must take into account the strength of the wind, the direction of the waves and their height. The behavior of the aircraft in extreme conditions of emergency splashdown to a large extent depends on these conditions. At the same time, if we correctly evaluate all weather, splashdown in a stormy sea will not differ in complexity from landing on a calm surface of the water.

Important! The airliner needs to splash down parallel to the wave crests and in no case in the direction of the wave.
Important! Landing should take place at the slowest aircraft speed that is possible in the situation, but avoid too much nose uplift, which can lead to fuselage destruction upon impact with the water surface.

At this time, the aircraft is affected by colossal overloads, which, at the slightest mistake of the crew, lead to the destruction of the aircraft. If the ship's commander adequately assessed the situation and chose the correct course of descent and contact with the water surface, the chances of a favorable outcome and saving people increase significantly.

Additional Information:

to assess the height of the waves and the direction of their movement, a height of no more than 600 m is needed;
according to the laws of wave interference, the height of the successive sea waves varies, so even in storm conditions there are calm areas on the sea surface.

Airliner type

In an emergency situation, the type of aircraft is important. According to experts, there are a number of patterns that positively or negatively affect the outcome of an emergency landing on water:

the larger and heavier the airliner, the more chances for a safe splashdown;
the fuselage, most often suffering from impact on the surface of the water, must have a significant margin of safety;
retracted landing gear is a prerequisite.

Big passenger aircraft there are all the listed advantages, including reinforced fuselages. If the chassis system is in good condition, then it is not difficult to ensure their closure. If the landing gear is not retracted, then this can cause shocks and throws when in contact with the wave, and the result is damage to the wings and partial or complete destruction of the airliner.

Crew professionalism

The ship's commander cannot influence this circumstance, but by correctly considering the characteristics of his aircraft and assuming how it will behave in given conditions, he can minimize the risks of serious damage or destruction of the aircraft.

Without exaggeration, it can be noted that the lives of passengers and crew depend on the level of professionalism of the commander, because. He always makes the final decision. This factor is decisive. The extent to which the commander correctly assessed and took into account all the risks and capabilities of the aircraft ultimately determines the outcome of an emergency splashdown.

During training, all pilots learn to operate in various emergency and emergency situations which are practiced on simulators and are analyzed in detail in theoretical classes.

Important! After the first contact of the aircraft with the water surface, the aircraft loses control, and the pilots can no longer control it.
Important! During an emergency landing on a calm water surface, an important role is played by the correct assessment of the height of the aircraft above the water surface.

If it is difficult for the crew to correctly and accurately determine the height of the aircraft above the sea surface, it can be determined empirically by making several turns and throwing any objects into the water from the side. Then you can try to sit on the sea surface.

Splashing on rivers and bays

The most convenient for emergency splashdown are the so-called closed water spaces, such as rivers, bays, bays, etc. In this case, the crew should, if possible, make a preliminary circle and assess the conditions for landing:

the presence of foreign objects;
dimensions of the area for maneuver (cannot be less than 1500x90 m);
wind direction;
flow direction.

Important! With a weak river current, if the wind blows from the wrong side, from which it is necessary, then splashdown is performed against the wind.
Important! If the directions of the wind and current coincide, emergency splashdown is carried out against the wind and current.
Important! If the current and the wind are opposite, then the planes splash down against the direction of the wind.

The best is considered such a calculation of the landing trajectory, in which, as a result, the airliner will be near the coast, which will greatly facilitate the evacuation of passengers and crew members.

Actions of pilots during landing on water

In order to land the aircraft as safely as possible on the water, the crew must work smoothly and immediately follow all the orders of the commander. The sequence of actions in this case is as follows:

Remove landing gear and flaps, otherwise proceed as in a normal landing;
Transfer all engines to low speed;
Upon reaching a height of 2 m, the body of the aircraft should be leveled, and the nose should be slightly raised at the moment of contact with the water surface;
Flight to right place continues with excess of the critical speed level by 20 km/h;
When approaching the selected splashdown point, you need to release the gas and raise the frontal part in such a way as not to reduce the speed to critical;
After touching the water, the nose must be lowered so that the area of \u200b\u200bcontact with the water surface is maximum, this will facilitate braking;
The position of the liner is controlled by the pilot in manual mode, using the elevator;
After the final braking, the crew must proceed to the evacuation of passengers.

Landing at night

In the event that an emergency landing of a crashed aircraft on the water occurs at night, you need to turn on the headlights after reaching a height of about 150 m and carefully monitor to correctly catch the moment when you need to level the airliner before contact with the water in order to prevent hitting the water surface or critical speed reduction.

Important! If the landing is carried out in cloudy or foggy conditions, then the lighting is not turned on.

In clear weather, splashdown is carried out towards the moon, this will give the most correct orientation and assessment of the situation, wind speed and direction, and the degree of sea turbulence.

Important! It should be remembered that in such a situation the sea surface seems less rough than in reality.

Evacuation of passengers and crew after splashdown

After the aircraft comes to a complete stop, the ship's commander must assess the situation and decide which emergency exits will open. This is done based on the position of the aircraft relative to the direction of the wind and waves, in order to prevent water from entering the emergency hatches.

After that, the commander gives the order to launch the life rafts and start the evacuation of passengers. The crew must organize the evacuation in such a way as to prevent panic, congestion a large number people in one place, because this can lead to a dangerous roll of the hull of the liner.

Passengers wearing life jackets are evenly distributed by flight attendants near all emergency exits. The process should take place as quickly as possible in order to have time to leave the ship before it begins to sink. The commander of the ship is in full control of the situation and must leave the aircraft last, after which he continues to lead the rescue and must request help via the emergency radio station.

Important! When determining emergency exits for evacuation, you need to choose those that are above the water level overboard, in order to avoid flooding the liner. This can be done by looking outside through the windows of the emergency exits.
Important! In the event of a storm at sea, you need to open emergency hatches located above the wings, and those that are on the leeward side.

Typically, life rafts are brought by flight attendants to the desired exit manually, fastened with special ropes to the exit door so that they are not carried away by the wave, and are dropped into the water. After that, a special starting rope (connecting the air valve to the gas cylinder) fills the life raft with air.

After the first life raft is filled with people, the second raft is lowered, and the first is connected with a rope to the second raft, which, in turn, is tied to emergency exit, etc. Thus, after the completion of the evacuation, all liferafts must be connected to each other with ropes of at least 8 m in length.

After that, you need to sail to a safe distance as quickly as possible so that the rafts do not get sucked into the funnel that forms when the plane goes to the bottom.

Important! If the painter connecting the raft with escape hatch will not be cut, then after the plane starts to sink, the painter will burst and the life rafts will be pulled after the sinking aircraft.

All crew members must act clearly and coherently in accordance with the instructions and orders of the ship's commander. The commander leaves the plane only after making sure that there are no living people in it.

Additional Information. There are times when an airliner does not sink and stays on the water, life rafts should not sail far from it, so as not to complicate the search for survivors by rescue services.

Historical reference

In history, the number of cases of successful splashdown of aircraft is more than a dozen. In Soviet times, one of the most striking cases occurred when a Soviet airliner TU-124 splashed down on the water surface of the Neva in extreme conditions. Thanks to the skill of the ship's commander V.Ya. Bridge and the high professionalism of the crew, there were no casualties, although the landing was carried out with an unretracted landing gear, which in an emergency landing on water can lead to irreparable consequences. 44 passengers and crew members escaped with bruises and scratches.

Another interesting and tragic case in the history of aircraft landing on water is the episode with the hijacking of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft by terrorists, which took place on November 23, 1996. The terrorists forced the crew to head towards Australia, but in the area of the Comoros, jet fuel ran out, and the crew attempted to land plane at sea. Everything happened in calm weather, not far from the beach, the depth of the sea did not exceed half a kilometer. But during the maneuver, the plane caught on the water with its wing, fell and fell apart. Of the 175 people, 125 were killed, including the criminals who hijacked the airliner.

A comical incident occurred in 2009 when, due to geese caught in the engines during takeoff, a US Airways airliner with 150 passengers on board splashed down on the Hudson. The plane landed safely, only 5 people were injured of varying severity, one of the flight attendants was seriously injured.

Video

Cases when planes landed on water are not so few in history. And, fortunately, many of them did without large-scale destruction and great loss of life. In all cases, people's lives were saved thanks to the high professionalism and well-coordinated work of all crew members who managed to prevent the destruction of the airliner during landing and prevent panic among passengers.

There are special brands of aircraft designed for landing on water. But history knows many examples when the pilots of conventional aircraft had to land not at the airfield, but on the water surface. Cast runway the rivers Neva, Volga, Hudson and even the Pacific Ocean performed.

Unfortunately, accidents happen in aviation when equipment fails for one reason or another. Today we will talk about unique cases when ordinary passenger aircraft, and not seaplanes, managed to land safely on the water. Most of them were doomed to death due to engine failure or other reasons. But thanks to the courage and professionalism of the pilots, they managed to land on the water and in many cases do without casualties.

Landing IL-12 on the Volga

This story of a plane splashing down with 23 passengers on board took place on April 30, 1953. The passenger plane operated the Moscow-Novosibirsk flight with a stopover at the Kazan airport. Just before approaching the intermediate landing, both engines failed on the plane. As it turned out later, this emergency arose due to a meeting with a flock of ducks that got into the engine. The plane began to quickly lose altitude, and in the current difficult conditions, the crew decided to land the plane on the water. Emergency landing was committed in the area of Kazan river port. Since this happened quite far from the coast (the depth of the landing site was about 18 meters), the plane began to fill with water and slowly sink. rescue operation complicated by the fact that the landing took place at 21.37 local time and it was already dark. All passengers and crew members managed to get out of the sinking plane. locals all the victims were brought to the shore by boats, except for one passenger, who, unfortunately, drowned, becoming the only victim of this plane crash.

Boeing 377 landing in the Pacific Ocean

Second successful case landing of the aircraft on the water occurred on October 15, 1956. On board the ship, en route from Honolulu to San Francisco, were 24 passengers and 7 crew members. After the failure of 2 of the four engines, the commander decided to land the liner on the water. As a result of a successful landing, none of the passengers were injured, and they were picked up by Coast Guard rescuers.

Tu-124 landing on the Neva

This incident occurred on August 21, 1963 in the sky over Leningrad. The aircraft was flying on the Tallinn-Moscow route. There were 52 people on board: 45 passengers and 7 crew members. Some time after takeoff from Tallinn airport, the crew discovered that the landing gear had jammed. After negotiations with dispatchers, it was decided to land the plane at the nearest airport, which turned out to be Pulkovo in Leningrad. Due to problems with the landing gear, it became immediately clear that the landing would be an emergency and in order to avoid fire and explosion, it was necessary to run out of fuel. After an hour of circling over Leningrad, when there was already little fuel left, problems arose with the engine. One after another, both engines failed, and the only chance to save the crew and the plane was landing on the water surface of the Neva. If the crew did not include co-pilot Vasily Grigorievich Chechenev, who had experience in landing aircraft on the water, it is not known how it would have ended. In a matter of seconds, the captain handed over control of the aircraft to Chechenev, who, thanks to his experience in naval aviation, managed to balance the position of the aircraft for landing on water. The plane splashed down safely on the Neva opposite the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, where rescuers and evacuation services were already waiting for it. All passengers and crew members survived.

Landing of a Japanese liner in the Pacific Ocean

This crash landing took place on November 22, 1968 near San Francisco. Japan Airlines DC-8 aircraft, carrying 96 passengers and 11 crew members, flew from Tokyo to San Francisco. This time, the cause of the emergency landing was a dense fog that enveloped the landing area. Due to poor visibility and an error in the instruments, which the captain of the ship was guided by, the crew landed on the water instead of the runway. Moreover, the pilots until the last thought that they were landing at the airport. Perhaps the lack of panic ensured the success of the entire operation. None of the passengers were hurt.

Tu-134 landing on the Moscow Canal

This incident occurred on July 17, 1972, when the aircraft was on a test and made an experimental flight. As a result of an emergency, the liner had an engine shutdown. There were 5 crew members on board at the time. Thanks to the professionalism of the pilots, it was possible to land the aircraft on the Ikshinskoye reservoir, one of the reservoirs of the Moscow Canal system. As a result of the incident, no one was injured.

Landing A 320-214 on the Hudson

The last landing of a large passenger airliner happened not so long ago - on January 15, 2009. The aircraft with 150 passengers and 5 crew members on board flew on the New York-Seattle route. Just 1.5 minutes after takeoff, the liner collided with a flock of birds, resulting in a shutdown of both engines. By this point, the plane had already climbed to 975 meters, so the pilots had time to plan. The crew managed to turn the plane around and make a successful landing on the water surface of the Hudson River opposite 48th Street in Manhattan. All passengers made it to the surface safely and were rescued. And although some of them were injured, landing on the Hudson River can be called a miracle, as all 155 passengers survived.

In all the cases described, numerous victims were avoided precisely thanks to the skill of the crew. Unfortunately, all planes after such landings no longer returned to the sky. According to experts, the favorable outcome of an emergency landing on the water depends on several factors. Highest value has the state of the water surface (the presence of waves or obstacles), the type of aircraft itself (large airliners are easier to land on the water) and the skill of the crew. It is the last factor that is decisive.

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 USSR-87541 Lithuanian Administration civil aviation, performing 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.

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 field airfields, due to mudslides, equip new runways it was extremely difficult. 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

A chance to save several dozen people when splashing down a heavy passenger liner quite real. Throughout history, 5 such cases have been recorded.

In the evening October 15, 1956 Boeing liner 377 Stratocruiser, owned by Pan Am, flew from Honolulu to San Francisco. There were 24 passengers and 7 crew members on board. October 16 over Pacific Ocean 2 engines out of 4 failed. 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. Working out over the city fuel for 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 injured.

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 broken flaps 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.

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:

having assessed the current situation, Sally, such a nickname was given to the American pilot by colleagues at work, turned to the control center with a request for permission to make an emergency landing on 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. Health care only five people were needed, 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.”