Unintended Glider

Today's actual ditching in the Hudson River by a US Airways A320 is very unique. The apparent circumstances in which caused the ditching are not.

Bird strikes on aircraft are quite common. All portions of the aircraft are subject to the inadvertent strike - whether it be the cockpit windshield (which I can personally attest is very loud) or a leading edge of the aircraft (nose, wing, tail) - some sort of damage is likely (usually minor). And jet engine manufactures must pass an ingestion test as part of the certification process.

Airports, many by their very location along various waterfronts (lakes, oceans, rivers), are prone to birds in their vicinity with high frequency. Most, if not all, airports have an ongoing bird mitigation program utilizing various techniques to control the bird population and migration patterns around the runway environment. These range from the standard pop gun (makes noise), to introducing predators (raptors, cats, etc.), to paving grassy areas, and actually making some other areas near the outlaying portions of the airport more attractive for birds to populate - whatever it takes to keep them away from the arrival and departure paths.

Not everything is guaranteed to completely control the problem. And many times the problem is solved by just waiting for the known flock of birds to move on by; or maneuvering the aircraft to avoid.

Birds have downed jet airplanes before - most notably a KC135 tanker departing Elmendorf AFB near Anchorage - when they ingested a flock of geese after departure and all 4 engines were unable to sustain power. The problem being not that they just disrupt the initial airflow and clog the intake, but they also bend or break the vital blades that the engine relies on to compress and smooth the flow of air through the engine to do its work.

Unfortunately the airplane is most vulnerable when taking off as it is low, slow and usually heavy (loaded with lots of gas for it's trip). And these occurrences generally happen at a low altitude where such an encounter does not lend a lot of options. And the bigger and more numerous the bird(s) the worse the problem for the aircraft they collide with.

It looks like in this case back in NY, the pilot indicated that he was initially going to try to glide to a general aviation airport (Teterboro) just west in NJ; but quickly had to reevaluate and make the tough decision to ditch in the river. Not a lot of practice goes into ditching, and this one looks as if it'll write the textbook on how to do it perfectly.

And unlike a lot of doom & gloom in the media - the jet airplane does not drop like a rock when the engines quit - it does glide quite well (approx. 2 miles per 1000' of altitude); which time-wise will be eaten up at low altitude very quickly. With seconds ticking by you may not be able to go where you want but given the quick thinking (and the wherewith all to amend your initial thoughts) a survivable crash landing is not only possible, but very probable.

Great work to all the crew members on that jet - before, during, and after the ditching. Let the second guessing begin. Though I believe the investigation will reveal these guys as true hero's.