I'm sure everyone reading this was glued to the TV for a while- watching what had happened to US Airways flight 1549. Taking off from LaGuardia, it hit a flock of geese and had a double engine failure. Since LGA is right by the city, there was not a lot of options for the pilots so they took the plane right into the Hudson river.
Expertly handled, the Captain, First Officer and Crew did a fantastic job of landing the plane safely on the water, getting all the passengers and themselves out of the plane, onto the wings and to safety. As Flight Attendants, we practice evacuations during training and on our yearly reccurrent training. Especially flying mostly domestic, a water ditching seems quite far fetched, but this is a good example of what can happen on any flight. Kudos to the whole crew!
My mom called me that day and as I answered, all the said was "turn on the tv, a plane crashed". Imagine my surprise to see it literally in the Hudson because of birds. Not going to lie here, I have been on planes that have hit birds and I have seen what even a smaller bird can do to a plane. The difference for me was they didn't end up in the engine! Even knowing this doesn't scare me away from flying! Accidents like this show how trained and prepared Flight Crews are for emergencies.
As I flew that night from Cincinnati to Dayton (yup only a 19 minute flight for me) my exit row passengers were attentive and when asked if they could preform their duties in case of emergency- one man said "If we land in the Ohio River tonight- I am ready with the door". Good to know the passengers take it seriously too.
To read more on Captain Chelsey Sullenberger, you can visit Heather's blog about all sorts of Flying stuff! She is super fun to read....
1 comment:
Great pics!
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