On a typical January day in 2009, the crew of US Air 1549 proceeded as normal for a flight from NY to Charlotte. They were running a few minutes late, but that didn’t affect the experienced crew this day. There was no rush of hurry-up-itis. It was a normal flight. The plane boarded, pax seated, preflight pax briefing was given, cockpit crew gets corrected weight and balance from Ops, cabin prepped for TO, and the signal given for FAs to take their TO positions.
The crew had a lot of experience flying and a lot of experience “flying together”. This would be a critical element for the remainder of this short flight.
Today’s rotation had the FO scheduled to fly the aircraft. The captain controlled the preparations for taxi and line up, then, he gave control of the aircraft to the FO, “The aircraft is yours”. The FO took control and proceeded takeoff, roll through rotation. All were normal. The Captain was going through the routine (NFP) after-takeoff checklist, and looked to the Hudson and proclaimed “what a view of the Hudson today”.
Little did he know that he was already planning for the emergency to come. His situational awareness would prove to be the defining factor for survival of the 155 souls on board.
33 Seconds later they hit birds. They lost both engines.
13 seconds later, the Captain took back control of the aircraft. He declared a Mayday and ATC gave the Captain options for either going back or alternative landing options.
Given their current position and altitude the Captain decided that they were going to go into the Hudson. He lined up the ac, consciously chose an area near the Intrepid, because there would be many assist craft available after they went into the water.
1 minute 39 seconds after the Mayday, He announced over the PA “Brace for Impact”. This was the first indication from the cockpit crew to cabin crew that they were going to have an emergency landing. The cabin crew, not exactly sure if they were on land or water, in concert, shouted “Brace- Brace - Heads down - Brace - Brace”.
>You’re wondering why the Captain didn’t announce brace for landing on water. The Captain feared that if he had announced “Brace for Water”, the FAs and PAX would be too concerned about vest retrieval and donning, rather than bracing and protecting themselves from impact injury. This was a conscious decision. There was no time to get the vests out and on and brief pax. The cabin crew knew there was going to be an emergency landing, so whether on land or water, an impact was going to happen.
1 minute 19 seconds later, they impacted the Hudson River.
The emergency light was activated and the captain opened the cockpit door a commanded “Evacuate” the aircraft. At the exit, the flight attendants soon realized they were in water. They accessed the water levels at their assigned exits, and directed passengers to grab vests and exit out of the aircraft.
The Captain and FO were the last to leave the aircraft to waiting slide rafts, all 150 passengers and 5 crew were rescued by waiting ferries and other water craft.
The Captain’s notation of “What a view of the Hudson” - heightened his Situational Awareness and aided his “Naturalistic Decision Making” (NDM)*.
Emergency Evacuations 44
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