OT: Air Bus Being Lifted From The Hudson

Here's a pic of flight 1549 being lifted out of the river. Hal

Here's a pic where its loaded on a barge. Hal

What a bizarre situation. The wisdom/instinct/intellegence/and fortitude to take exactly the correct steps is incredible.the fact that the craft remained flight worthy is also a miricle. This airplane is fly by wire, and W/O continued electricity it would have been toast! JimN

I have a friend who was a airline jet engine mechanic. I asked him about the electric power, that is, when the engines quit, did the plane's instruments and controls still work, and if so, how? He said the planes have APU's or auxillary power units, which is a small turbine powered generator. They use this as their initial power source, he said until they reach higher altitude, so when this happened the plane would still have been on the auxilary power. No doubt it would have been a real dilemma if they'd lost electrical power too.

There is also a "pop out" generator that is basically a wind turbine that can supply the critical systems with electrical power. All these commercial airplanes hve multiple redundant systems to deal with multiple failures and the structure has redundancy also. If the crew reacts properly, the out come can be positive as it was in this case.

I'm a jet mechanic, having been forced to retire when A.T.A went under after 19 years. I doubt seriously that the APU would've still been running after the aircraft departed the gate area. Most airlines request the pilots shut them down as a fuel savings measure if nothing else.

I don't have any Airbus experience, I've worked Boeings and Lockheed my entire career, but I would have to guess that besides the two engine driven generators, the aux power unit or "apu" with it's generator, and the battery, there is probably a "RAT" or ram air turbine (think of a mini-windmill that swings out into the airstream) of some kind. On boeing aircraft the "rat" is used to power a hydraulic pump which would in turn provide pressure to operate a hydraulic powered generator. I didn't see a "rat" deployed in any of the photo's.

My guess is he still had sufficient engine RPM to power the generators on the engines or he was on battery at the point of splash down.

There is enough fail safe in most commercial jet designs that would ensure that basic instruments and some ability to control the aircraft even if its in a prolonged glide are available.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Transat_Flight_236

The link is for an event involving an Airbus aircraft.

have a freind who has been a pilot with nnalert for over 30 years the last few trained & flying the " new " air bus he explained the whole fly by wire, need elect to do anything concept of these planes & when describing what that pilot did to get the plane safely on the ground ( ok water LOL ) all he could say was " WOW " i told him it just made me happy to see for once when a plane like this had major problems it did not end up with a massive tragedy
my hat is off to the crew of that pane
bob

Some of the later reports said that the engines were not completely off line, but still running, just not providing any measurable thrust.

This might explain still having power for the electrical and hydraulic system.


Gene

Here's a whole bunch of pics
US AIR RAISING

aT ONE TIME i HEARD THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD PUT THAT PLANE BACK IN SERVICE. aRE THEY STILL SAYING THAT?

Just think of all the millions of dollars the military spends on rockets and warfare to shoot down planes and all they would need are a few trained geese!