Ever Had a "Close Call"???

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 Never knew you could change the minimums for an approach in progress! But, what the hey, if it's not published I guess you can say it is anything you want.... and they did.

Since everyone was going to be landing "somewhere" in a few minutes anyhow, guess it didn't make any difference what the minimums were.

[Rustic23]

That's right. Just depended on how wet you were going to get!

[clifp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls99 From my experience in all forms of air transport (including hang gliders, and gliders) any landing you walk away from is a good landing. The ones calling their lawyers while standing on said aircraft's wings, will call it a bad day.

Can't argue with that. However the Hudson river landing isn't just a good landing it is an amazing landing. Anybody who called their lawyers after that landing should be tossed out of the next plane sans parachute.

[calmloki]

Heroes: Hero of the Hudson

There's the Cap'n. And here are the first pics of the touchdown:

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2009/1/u...witter-at-work

Taken and sent from an iphone. Oh iphone, is there any limit to your capabilities?

[Meadbh]

Captain Sullenberger definitely deserves a medal. Interesting that he is also a safety consultant.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meadbh Captain Sullenberger definitely deserves a medal. Interesting that he is also a safety consultant.

ABC Nightly News chose him as "The Person of the Week" and said he flew gliders as a hobby. Bet he never flew one as large as the one he flew yesterday.

ABC also mentioned Capt. Sullenberger graduated at the top of his class at the Air Force Academy. Before Nords beats me to it, I suppose I should add: once again we learn nobody's perfect...

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo ABC also mentioned Capt. Sullenberger graduated at the top of his class at the Air Force Academy. Before Nords beats me to it, I suppose I should add: once again we learn nobody's perfect...

Eh, can't make fun of anyone who manages to keep an F-4 in the air, let alone make a water landing without a carrier flight deck...

[Achiever51]

I've had several close calls, including very nearly losing my daughter (and myself) during her birth due to placenta abruptio. Thank God for great doctors and medical teams!

In 1985, DH and I made our first trip to Europe, which included a week-long stay in London at the Rubens Hotel -- right across from Buckingham Palace. After checking into our room which had a direct view of the VIP visitors entrance to the Palace, I noticed that a door on one of the nightstands was jammed -- it looked like it was glued shut. I spent several minutes yanking on it, trying unsuccessfully to pry the door open. A day or so later, I tried again to open it with a nail file, but finally gave up and forgot about it.

Several weeks later back at home, I was watching Tom Brokaw's Nightly News when he reported that Scotland Yard announced it just uncovered a terrorist plot in London that if successful, could have destroyed Buckingham Palace... apparently a bomb was found in the nightstand of a room in the Rubens Hotel across the street from the Palace. Brokaw went on to say that PM Margaret Thacher said that if the extremely powerful plastic and dynamite explosives had they gone off as planned, hundreds of people likely would have been killed from the explosions. According to the report, the bombs did not go off because the batteries in the timers were installed incorrectly.

THAT scared me.

[free4now]

I don't know if you would call these close calls per se, but I've been in lots of places that have been catastrophically destroyed later on. Beaches of Phuket... I was there weeks before the tsunami. I rode a subway that crashed killing everyone a week later. I had been in the world trade towers. I've been to parts of New Orleans that were flooded. These remind me that death is always lurking.

I think the closest call I ever had was while working as a housepainter over college summers. I had a stepladder set up on a sloped roof to paint a dormer. The ladder lost traction and slid out from under me. The ladder started sliding down the roof, and my foot was caught in it, so I was being pulled towards the edge of the roof by the ladder. I frantically untangled my foot and just as the ladder went over the edge, I finally came to a stop. Below there was a 20 foot fall onto concrete which I'm glad to have avoided.

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by calmloki Heroes: Hero of the Hudson There's the Cap'n. And here are the first pics of the touchdown: U.S. Airways Crash Rescue Picture: Citizen Journalism, Twitter At Work Taken and sent from an iphone. Oh iphone, is there any limit to your capabilities?

The root cause of the crash: It turns out the geese were text messaging!

[Meadbh]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl The root cause of the crash: It turns out the geese were text messaging!

On behalf of all Canadians, I apolgize for the behaviour of our Geese!

[TromboneAl]

They finally found the other engine -- turns out the geese were trying to sell it on eBay!

[OK, OK, I stole these jokes from Jay Leno.]

[Meadbh]

Ask the pilot, What saved the passengers of Flight 1549? | Salon Technology

[cashbalancetrouble]

I thought I heard Heraldo say the same plane that crashed on Thursday had a compressor stall on the flight Tuesday from L, NY to Charlotte. I wonder if it was the same pilot? If it was, do you think he reported it and US AIR didn't do anything? Maybe that is why the "UNIOWN" has kept him from the media frenzy.

Does anyone know if this AIRBUS used GE engines?

[Rustic23]

I would discount a compressor stall. It would be extremely rare for both engines to stall and both to fail, and neither be able to be restarted.

YouTube - Compressor stall A330

The above shows an A330 with what appears to be four compressor stalls. Notice one engine only, and the engine did not appear to fail, although it is hard to tell if it did or not. Also note that the aircraft does not appear to go out of control or fall from the sky.

This, for me, is more press hysteria. The pilot reported he hit a flock of birds!