Aircraft crash in New York-Media hype-again

[Deleted]

Well, the media REALLY have excelled themselves (on both sides of the Atlantic) with the normal amount of uninformed rubbish and 'expert opinions' they need to fill out hours of continuous broadcast.

The aircraft, an Airbus Industrie A320 (NOT an A380 as reported on one US media broadcast) reported as registraton number N106US, took off from La Guardia Airport, New York at 15.26 EST (20.26 GMT) and made a normal left turn (about 25 degrees from runway centre line) to pass over Bronx Park, climbing to an altitude of about 3,000 feet. After the bird strike (a flock of Canadian geese), the pilot made a sharp turn to the left of almost 180 degrees, losing height and passing over Route 95 before heading south along the line of the Hudson river (and passing under a northbound flight, N461SA, by about 500 feet), before making a ditching in that river at 15.31 EST.

The aircraft was US Airways flight 1549, from La Guardia (KLGA), bound for Charlotte Airport North Carolina (KCLT) with a report passenger load of 150 (also reported as 146) and a crew of five.

Amazingly (it would have had a substantial fuel load at the time) the aircraft did not break up on hitting the water, but floated and drifted south on a running tide for some time.

It has been suggested that the fuel (much in the wings), far from causing the aircraft to sink, gave extra bouyancy.

[john]

Only having just got in from the British Legion club in Romford, my mum told me about it. Haven't actually managed to hear anything on any news programme so far

[jrussa]

Yeah in Jamaica, CNN (American news channel) is broadcasting it still, even as the time I posted. They were interviewing one of the passengers about the pilot warned them and told them to get ready to hit the Hudson River. Also they managed to open all doors on the plane and they had to walk on the wings of the plane to get off and much more!