Re: Sulley has 34,500+ fans

Dave,

I am in awe of the whole thing.

Me too.

Btw, this is only the second time I am aware-of that a water-landing by a
commercial jet aircraft has had a 100% survival rate. The last one was a
Tupolev TU-124 in 1963 (the Tupolev had its engines imbedded in the wings,
not hanging below them). It went down fast and hard, narrowly missing an old
steam tugboat, which immediately towed it to shallow water. All passengers
remained on the aircraft.

As further information, the flare-to-stall put the tail into the water
first. Apparently, it acted as a drag-rudder to keep the plane positioned
straight ahead as the engines went into the water.

It just gets more amazing!

Allan

--
One asks, many answer, all learn -- Plato, on the 'Forum
---
True civility is when every one gives to every other one every right
that they claim for themselves.

"Dave K" <dave.k@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:el64n49o5i98727m2nlgtb0rg8e791rffo@xxxxxxxxxx
On Fri, 16 Jan 2009 18:01:00 -0500, "Allan Smith"
<guesswho@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I'd be a passenger in a craft under his command, anytime, anywhere, but
preferably to chartered vacation destination.

With that kind of focus and cool head, I'd bet he's a challenging golf
partner, too.

A last moment flare-to-stall, hitting hard both engines first with a
nose-up
attitude, avoiding that deadly cartwheel that tears an aircraft apart and
kills people.

Agreed.

Genius. He's re-written the manual for every commercial pilot.


I worked with a fella that was a pilot. As an aside, he had his
pilots license and amateur radio license before he had a drivers
license.

According to him, landing a plane on water is a problem because at
slow landing speeds, one wing or the other is heavier, and goes down
first, and then the cartwheeling...

I heard of a comment made by an FAA person some years ago, and I
paraphrase, ...We know that landing a jet successfully on water is
possible. When we find an example of one, we'll let you know....

I don't know if there are other successful landing of jets on water
or not. Regardless, given the problem, it seems rare, and this is one
of those times when things went right.

Sully accomplished something truly amazing. This is one for the new
manuals. He can't get enough credit for accomplishing that difficult
task.

At the same time, we need to remember the rest of the crew that
helped the passengers stay calm, and get them out of the plane. There
were passengers that helped their fellow passengers. Remember the
crews of the ferry boats that saw the problem, and reacted in the very
best way; by being prepared, and getting underway to the wreck.
Remember the emergency responders that worked at the scene.

Then there are the intangibles; The right pilot and crew, the right
time of day when the river was not crowded, etc. etc.

I am in awe of the whole thing.
--

Cheers! :)


.

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