Plane crash

[stonebroke]

The PCB pollution is about 150 miles north. It is pretty much gone by the time you get to poughkeepsie about 50 miles north of the city, The water in NY harbor is surprisingly clean now adays except after a big rain event when the combined storm and sanitary sewers overwhelm the sewer plants. People actually swim  and fish in the harbor on a regular basis.There is a lot of stuff on the bottom but most of it is buried in the sediments.

Stonebroke

[rowerwet]

As an aircraft mechanic I found the water landing to be a miracle,
-the A-320 is fly by wire it is flown by a joystick on the pilots left, it has no feedback! normal airplanes have control cables that are connected to the flight controls and give "feel" to the pilot, just like your steering wheel gives you in the car.
-water landings have a low chance of such success, I have only heard of one other landing that went so well and it was back in the '50s, look on Utube for other water landings that have been caught on video. (bad)
-the A320 has engines on the wing making a water landing even more dangerous, suprisingly only one engine sheared off as the engeneers designed them to in a water landing.
-the pilot is a gliding pilot instructor, the best type to have in this case. A regular pilot would most likely have tried for teeterborough, I flew over that airport at 3,000 feet two weeks ago, he couldn't have made it since he was at 900 feet by the time he cleared the George Washington bridge.
   the rescue review will leave the police, fire, coast guard with red faces as they were to late to do any real rescues, the circle line ferrys were the first three boats there, they were also the best possible as they have bow and stern thrusters and could easily keep station with plane as it drifted down the river, a regular boat would have to keep backing out and coming in as the wind would push them more than the plane. The only police that realy were needed  to rescue were the police divers who jumped out of the helicopter to pull two women out of the river who were almost overcome with hypothermia. (the water was 35*)
   the next boat to the scene was "the beast" a turbine powered speed boat also owned by circle line that can do 120 on the water, for the ultimate rush and a couple grand you can get a ride. The captain of that boat saved a few people also.
  the emergency boats took almost 20 min to respond, mostly they had to keep the plane drifting out to sea and becoming a hazzard to navigation.
   The geese were at about 3,000 feet and miles from laguardia so no amount of patrol could have stopped this accident, shooting geese who infest local golf courses and parks would have helped.
   The plane is a write off, aviation insurance is cheap and quick to pay as claims are not very common. You are in multiple times more danger walking or driving your car than flying, even in a light piston plane (70% of the accident rate is from them). Commercial pilots go for training once a year and part of that training is in a simulator where scenarios like this will be thrown at them with out notice, control failures, engine failures, instrument failures, etc. they want you to sweat, and learn. You can bet this scenario will be thrown at crews randomly from now on to see if they make the same choices
   Amazingly enough until a few years ago the captain would be facing retirement in two years, (age 60) now he can fly until 65 as long as the other crew member is under 60.
  Not grabbing the seat cushion bottoms is a Flight attendant/ passenger problem, if you fly pay attention to the safety briefing, it is there for a reason. count the rows to the nearest exit, if possible go toward the rear to get there, most people will try to get out through the same door they came in through. remember the cabin may be dark or smoky, there are leds in the floor to guide to a exit. the seat backs will fold forward when pushed hard, a better route as everyone else will be in the isle. don't bring any carry on luggage (something that did happen in NY). Try to keep your shoes with you, you can't wear them on an emergency slide, but will want them on the ground. there is a card in each seat back with this on it, read it if the crew indicates there is a problem.
  Aircraft are made to be 150% stronger than the design load for flight, some components from this aircraft may make it back into the air, but very few after a salt water bath. This aircraft is done, it will be recycled back into other stuff, it could never fly again as the wiring is done for after its bath.
If you are intersted in more details or pictures look on the forum at airliners.net.