Last Thursday January 15 we all just witness a miracle. US Airways flight 1549 crashed in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from NY's Lagaurdia Airport. The Airplane was only in the air for 1 minute at an altitude of 3000 ft when it hit a flock of geese. The impact caused both engines to quit. At the point the airplane became a giant glider. The pilot initially tried to make it back to Laguardia, or near by Teterboro Airport. But because they were heavy, and loosing so much altitude in which they didn't have enough altitude to play with at the start the capt decided at the last minute to put it down in the Hudson River. All the passengers & crew survived. Some people didn't even get their feet wet. Good Job!

This accident will bring back attention to bird stirke issues. Airplanes & birds dont mix. However, the birds were here first. Every year hundreds of bird strikes happen with minor damage most of the time. Birds are good at usually avoiding airplanes in flight. For pilots, it hard to spot & avoid birds. Sometimes you could turn to avoid a hit, but not often. I had at least five bird strikes in the last several years that created light damage to the airplanes airframe. Its true that it is rare for a bird strike to cause a airplane crash. Todays jet engine are build with tough standards to at least be able to take 1 or 2 birds like the one that hit the us airways flight, but no airplane can survive a direct hit with a flock of birds without suffering major damage.

When it comes to a dual engine failure that happen to the us airways flight, airplanes becomes glider when they have no power. We call this dead stick landing. At around 35,000 ft a typical jet could travel 100 miles. Thats plenty of altitude to play with & plan an approach to a airport. But the us airways flight only had 3000 feet of altitude so it had few options for the flight. He might  have been able to make it to the airport but everything would had to been perfect. Keep in mind when you banking & turning you lose more lift. He would had to line himself up ,but down flaps & gear at the right time. If you put gear down too early you lose too much altitude & might not be able to make the airport. When you make a dead stick landing you only have one shot & it has to be perfect or the games over. The only other successful dead stick landing happen over the North Atlantic when another pilot of an airbus 330 had a fuel leak that caused both engines to quit over the ocean at night. The crew made a dead stick landing & glided the jet to a safe landing on a small island near Spain with no injuries.

As the fact come out on Us airways flight 1549 I would not be surprise that this crew had few options, but to land in the Hudson. Luck & skill play a hand in this.