oh my god

A place for members to talk about things outside of Virgin Islands travel.
PA Girl
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Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:55 am

Post by PA Girl »

Gromit, I'm with you on the flight schedules!

And how about the Staten Island ferry boat captain?

This morning, I heard on our local news she was first on the scene, her crew pulled 24 out of the water and she is all of 19 years old.

I have 29 year olds working for us that can't get to work on time and there she is racing her ferry boat to a plane crash.
jimg20
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Location: Fayetteville, AR

Post by jimg20 »

I was told that there were photos of boats approaching the plane before the doors were open. The captain on the Today Show (yes his name really is Vince Lumbardi) said that they were at their dock a few hundred yards from the plane and launched on their own initiative. They have fire drills and man-overboard drills on a regular basis. Enroute to the plane he had his crew deploying the rescue equipment in preparation of taking on passengers. He said they delivered 59 of the 155 people to dry land. He has a little more than five years experience as a captain.

JIM
djmom
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Post by djmom »

Ok, yall, I am at the bus stop with my daughter this morning and one of the girls there (6th grader) says "my dad was in a plane crash last night".

She says this like "oh, by the way...."

I almost fell over.

He is driving home.

We live in Charlotte, lots of Charlotteans on the flight....one of my best friends husband flies for USAIR.

Anyways, that pilot, what a hero...incredible. My friend says they practice this all this time in simulators. I guess there are vents or something underneath the plane they close off for water "landing", etc...

Happy day for all of us.
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sherban
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Post by sherban »

Plane wrecks.....

Having a background in engineering and failure analysis...about 4 or 5 years ago I decided that I was going to "manhandle" any concernd I had about plane crashes and associated risks by "getting the facts straight"....so that I could logically deal with the risks. So, I proceeded to start consuming the information and statistics on the NTSB website....WHAT A MISTAKE! I should have known better. There are too may variables to get your arms around it...and when things go really wrong...usually the outcome is the same. There are written transcripts of what the pilots are saying when the accident is in progress....again---BAD IDEA TO READ THESE...
Here's the link...are ya up for it?
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviation/aviation.htm
I wouldn't reccomend it, there are times where more knowlege isn't really helpful.
jmq
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Location: NJ

Post by jmq »

Talk about serendipity, not only is the pilot an ex-fighter pilot, he has flown gliders and was a safety trainer, investigated aircraft accidents, is president of a safety consulting firm, and studied the "psychology of keeping airline crews functioning even in the face of crisis."

Props to NY Waterways ferry boat crew and captains, civilians on those boats, and first responders from NYPD and FDNY. Police divers dropped from a helicopter 5-7 minutes after the 911 call.

The thing about New Yorkers, their no-nonsense ways serve them well in times of crisis.

How rare is a successful “water landing" of a large plane? Pretty rare according to the NY Daily News. Article cites a less successful one in the Virgin Islands in 1970:

A Very Rare Happy Ending in Hudson River Plane Crash
BY DAVE GOLDINER DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

How rare it is for a commercial pilot to intentionally land on water and have everyone survive?

This rare: It happened only once before Thursday - and that was more than 45 years ago.

"For everybody to get out, that's pretty amazing," said Emilio Corsetti, a pilot and author of "35 Miles From Shore," a book about a plane that landed in the ocean near the Virgin Islands in 1970.

"Since jet travel started, there's only been a handful of intentional ditchings," Corsetti said. "It's extremely, extremely rare."

Small planes occasionally make emergency landings on water, often after running out of fuel or when a single engine fails.

Commercial planes often crash into water or wind up in water after missing or skidding off runways.

It is almost unheard of for jet pilots to intentionally try to land on water. They would have to lose power in both engines at once or run out of fuel, both of which are unusual for commercial planes.

There have only been three documented incidents of a pilot intentionally ditching commercial planes in water, all of which took place after the jet ran out of fuel.

The only known water ditching in which all passengers survived was in Russia in 1963, when an Aeroflot jet with 52 people aboard ran out of fuel and landed in a river near St. Petersburg.

The incident came at the height of the Cold War, and some observers questioned whether Soviet authorities' account was reliable.

Another water ditching came in May 1970, when the pilot of a plane headed from New York to St. Maarten in the Caribbean landed the plane in open water after it ran out of fuel in May 1970.

The Overseas National Airlines plane was turned away from the Virgin Islands by bad weather and flew to San Juan before being told to return to St. Maarten. It crashed into the water off the coast of St. Croix.

About half the 57 passengers aboard Flight 980 survived the terrifying plunge into shark-infested waters, including several New Yorkers.

In 1996, an Ethiopian Airlines pilot ditched his hijacked Boeing 767 in shallow water off the Comoro Islands in the Indian Ocean after it ran out of fuel. About 50 of the 172 people aboard survived.
Last edited by jmq on Fri Jan 16, 2009 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
djmom
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Post by djmom »

wow, that is amazing. after talking to my pilot friend- he was acting like it was "no big deal". "we do that all the time in the simulators, etc.." then again, when I think about it, he is pretty cocky about his abilities.

which he should be!!! if you don't think you can accomplish something like that, you won't. i dont want a wimp flying my plane!

if I was flying it, I would have crumpled up on the floor crying.

that is why the captain from yesterday is a hero...
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verjoy
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Post by verjoy »

Everyone that participated in this ditching/rescue were amazing! It wouldn't have been possible if the pilots had not maintained their cool.

We nearly had to do a wet-ditching in a six-passenger plane my husband was flying in Hawaii. I was terrified, but my hubby kept his composure and got the engine restarted within a minute. Thank God there were all adults on board.
jmq
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Post by jmq »

Photo below just released by Homeland Security believed to be taken the day before the crash reveals link to possible terrorism in the US Airways water landing on the Hudson.
Osama bin Honking and his right wing man are believed to have died in the attack.

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When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
Wakey
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Post by Wakey »

That explains why the bastards always attack on golf courses :lol:

I'll host some pics I have of the recovery..
Wakey
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Post by Wakey »

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I'm not religious but I thought this was kinda cool..

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flip-flop
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Post by flip-flop »

Great pictures. That engine was really shredded. What a miracle. And that pilot had MAD MAD skills!
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pjayer
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Post by pjayer »

Wakey, those are amazing pictures. It's truly a miracle no lives were lost.


(jmq, you should write for The Onion. :lol:)
When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky, because everything there happens 20 years after it happens anywhere else. – Mark Twain
jmq
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Post by jmq »

Wow. Thats some cool pix and one big ass crane. I woulda thought they would have had to lift it out even a little slower than they did as noted by the time stamp to let the extra weight of the water run completely out. Guess it poured out pretty quickly.
When we come to place where the sea and the sky collide
Throw me over the edge and let my spirit glide
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Chet
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Post by Chet »

OMG! Is that guy de-icing the wing? :lol:
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

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Carolyn
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Post by Carolyn »

I'm fascinated by how things work, and find that just amazing that they were able to lift that plane w/ all that mud, water, wet everything, etc all up in one big 'old piece. WOW...thanks for posting!
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