Pictures from the Hudson river miracle.

[Ralphie]

A friend of mine in the National Guard sent me these images and i haven't seen them around. I googled i didn't see them.

I think he might have taken them himself as a lot of the Guard members work odd jobs in the NYC area.

Anyway i wanted to share the recovery process with you as it is such a blessing.

The aircraft is in almost perfect shape with minor exceptions.

Note the ice chunks floating.....boy i feel bad for the dive teams.

So i don't know who will appreciate this but i know at least Scott will.

I am still in awe of this landing....what an awesome way to start 09.

Well on to the pics!

[Ralphie]

[Ralphie]

[turbomaxx]

Incredible

[skilzz]

noice.. i gotta show this in class tomorrow

[owequitit]

The aircraft was "intact" but in nowhere near perfect shape.

In fact, initial reports from investigators say it was just this side of breaking apart... Had that happened, I am afraid the outcome could have been far different. If you google other pictures of it, you will see the extensive damage to the belly, and the wings, which are the strongest part structurally.

Don't get me wrong, I am not in anyway saying that what happened wasn't good, but the media is building certain aspects of this into things it was not, which is what a profit driven company that sales sensationalism does.

1) The pilot is NOT the only hero here. He is the man in charge, but he wasn't the only one related to getting that airplane on the water safely.

2) The pilot did a damn good job of maximizing a bad set of variables, and for that he deserves credit. However, this is something that ALL airline pilots are trained and EXPECTED to do. Luckily, in this case there weren't other mitigating circumstance beyond the crews control that prevented a successful outcome.

3) The part that really pisses me off is that I have heard people starting to talk about suing now, which just blows my mind. They could have been dead, and now they are going to sue because something happened that nobody had any control over (well perhaps the birds could have been detected but that fault would lie with the government, not the airline). US Airways gave everybody on board $5,000 to replace belongings and such, and my guess is that someone still won't be satisfied.

[Ralphie]

noice.. i gotta show this in class tomorrow

What kind of class?

Incredible

Yea it really is

[SoySauceCb7]

30$ they use that plane again! its salvagable lol

[Ralphie]

The aircraft was "intact" but in nowhere near perfect shape.

In fact, initial reports from investigators say it was just this side of breaking apart... Had that happened, I am afraid the outcome could have been far different. If you google other pictures of it, you will see the extensive damage to the belly, and the wings, which are the strongest part structurally.

Don't get me wrong, I am not in anyway saying that what happened wasn't good, but the media is building certain aspects of this into things it was not, which is what a profit driven company that sales sensationalism does.

1) The pilot is NOT the only hero here. He is the man in charge, but he wasn't the only one related to getting that airplane on the water safely.

2) The pilot did a damn good job of maximizing a bad set of variables, and for that he deserves credit. However, this is something that ALL airline pilots are trained and EXPECTED to do. Luckily, in this case there weren't other mitigating circumstance beyond the crews control that prevented a successful outcome.

3) The part that really pisses me off is that I have heard people starting to talk about suing now, which just blows my mind. They could have been dead, and now they are going to sue because something happened that nobody had any control over (well perhaps the birds could have been detected but that fault would lie with the government, not the airline). US Airways gave everybody on board $5,000 to replace belongings and such, and my guess is that someone still won't be satisfied.

Ya i figured i should reword my sentence but i was too lazy lol.

Its in one peice, but im sure its a total loss.....i don't think the million dollar navigation equipment up front is going to work well after being submerged.

I didn't see any really good shots of the underbelly, but yea i assume there is extensive damage.

1. Deff not the only hero, everyone on the crew and many people who were passengers were heros that day, not just the pilot thats for sure.

2. Yes he basically did an amazing job of dealing with bad variables and using them to his advantage. I was wondering if the training that all pilots receive are on par with his.....i know his encompasses Air Force training which might have helped but i wasn't sure as im no pilot lol.

3. Yes unfortunately people are morons. Your alive, the company pays you 100x what you lost in luggage(no one lost anything work 5k unless they were carrying engagement rings or expensive jewlery). It is a shame that people just like to use a positive situation like this for their financial benefit.

[skilzz]

What kind of class?

Aircraft systems

[Ralphie]

Aircraft systems

LOL!

I had a feeling it was related.

[Father Time]

Damn. That is pretty neat.

On the other hand, I would take the $5000 and be glad I was alive to go home to my kids.

[F22HB]

Its not a miracle that the pilot had skill and prepared for this exact situation numerous times. Its not like the pilot passed out and some random dude brang it down in the river. There are miracles, then there are physics. They are different.

[vietkid_2006]

those engines are powerful. designed to take only one bird in the engine and be able to digest it. no more then that..or it'd damage the blades. and they're exspensive..almost close to the 5grand they gave to the passengers.

amazing a lot was in tact and no one was seriously injured.

now they can find out what happend. with the plane now that they resurrected it from davey jones locker

[Ralphie]

Its not a miracle that the pilot had skill and prepared for this exact situation numerous times. Its not like the pilot passed out and some random dude brang it down in the river. There are miracles, then there are physics. They are different.

Yes its a miracle.

Name another time in history a pilot brought down a plane in a body of water and lived to tell about it?

A plane with 140+ passengers......

Hitting water at 200+MPH and avoiding a disaster is somewhat of a miracle id say.

Obviously he was trained for this numerous times but i don't think any amount of training will produce the same results. Even if another pilot did the same exact thing this pilot did, if the plane happened to have a weak point no one knew of untill then, it could have turned out very different.

The circumstances were just too perfect. The pilot can only control so much.