The ditching on the Hudson river
On december the 15th of 2009,
a US Airways' Airbus A320
takes of from the Guardia airport in New York city
with 150 passengers onboard.
"Cactus 1549, we're passing 700 ft for 5000 ft"
In command, one of the most experienced pilot in the airline
Chesley Sullenberger, or "Sully"'
"Beautifull vue on the Hudson today"
The destination is less than one hour away from New York
Charlotte, in North Carolina.
A routine flight wich, in one second,
will become a critical situation
that only a human is able to handle.
We have a plane that take of,
during the initial climb it will ingest gooses,
which are one of the biggest flying birds in the world.
It will take 5 of them in both engines.
Both engines are then shut off.
The blades of the A320's engine
are supposed to endure birds.
But the combustion chamber was not supposed
to resist to so many huge birds.
The engine choke, and finally die out.
"I take the commands"
"You have the commands"
The plane is then a glider.
Impossible to reach the nearer airports.
He keeps on his track,
and glide on the whole lenght of Manathan
with no other choice that targeting
the Hudson river.
For Captain Sullenberger, there's only one option left :
try to ditch on the Hudson river.
"We are going to ditch on the Hudson."
"Sorry, please repeat Cactus"
The pilots,
have taken into account really fast,
because it's really fast 3000 feets without any engine.
They take all the situational informations,
have synthesize everyting in their brain,
and made a solution out of it.
If a computer says :
"i'm here, I know there is the Hudson, this is possible,
I know there is no boat that could hamper,
only if it has onboarded camera to see it...
It's hardly possible for the computer to gather all those informations,
and it has to be instantaneously.
It's something very quick,
it's really a humain brain way of working.
The 155 passengers and crew members
come out alive of this catastrophic ditching in front of Manhattan.
An authentic feat for the Captain, who has became
a national hero.
No automatism, as sophisticated as it can be,
could have made those decisions, and deal such a situation.
The choice to move toward the water,
only the human could have done it,
hopefully he did it, it was the right choice.
Lots of simulation have been done,
he was accused to have made that choice
and put his passengers at risk,
but the reality was that it was the only viable possibility.
But the Airbus A320's technology
also helped the pilot to win his difficult bet.
To ditch a gliding plane,
without its engines,
in the middle of a river.
"I think that the fact that we are on a plane with a joystick
the electrical flight controls, it also facilitated things.
Automatisms are looking at us,
they forbid ut to reach dangerous zones...
Because the pilot, without realising it,
had pulled a little too much on his stick,
he was flying so slowly,
that if the plane had obeyed,
the plane would have stalled.
Only a human being could have chosen the ditching,
but only the plane, with its intelligence,
was able to avoid him a stall.
So, it really is a very good plane, with a very good pilot.
