Crash , Bang , Smoke , Water ....All survive!

Twas only up six minutes in the air when the US Airways Flight 1549 (Airbus 320) made a landing in the Hudson.Yes eye witnesses are calling it more a landing than a crash.Witnesses who had no clue as to what was happening were quoted as saying that it almost looked like the pilot knew he would land it there on the Hudson.Reason for this ditch on the Hudson : Two reported bird strikes.Big planes like Airbus 320 or its successor Airbus 380 or the Boeings 747 , 727 can handle running on one engine unless and until something real fatal happens to the aircraft.The craft was on its way from LaGuardia , NY to Charlotte, NC.Given the size of the plane, it could have well glided and could have landed in the New Jersey Teterboro airport being so close in airspace distance.But this plane that should have been flying over Newark from Manhattan to Charlotte couldn't reach that point.It was going down.Going down fast !
Captain in charge : Captain Chesley B "Sully" Sullenberger.He was a fighter pilot before he joined US Airways as a commercial pilot.He was an active participant in flight saftey and had started a company for air safety as pilots are taught from day one about emergency landings as they are taught to fly.And such a co-incidence that he should be flying that plane.Everybody is lauding both the pilot and co-pilot as heroes as there was a miraculous escape for all the passengers on board.But experts say that it was a text book landing.When you need to ditch a plane, safest way to ditch is water.That is why the pilots probably chose the Hudson than the nearest airport.
Pitfalls of landing in water : A plane is designed to land on ground.The engine, wings and the landing gear become a bane in water which is otherwise the means to land on ground.The landing gear was not disengaged as it would have caused the airplane to flip and break.The fuesalage,the belly provided the buoyancy of the flight.
The pilot said : Brace for impact and the passengers knew they were going down as they could already see the smoke from the engines.
Well even though experts are calling it a text book landing with all the passengers safe what is the most laudable aspect of the incident is that there was hardly time for the pilots to decide whether to take it onto the next nearest airport(which would have been catastrophic if it landed over a populated stretch) or make a landing on water.Well the decision to land over the Hudson near the midtown area of Manhattan by clearing the Washington Bridge by around 900 ms is not only heroic and laudable but also miraculous by the success of it.
The captains saw to it that the aircraft was empty before they disembarked and another passenger was offered the captain's shirt as the captain feared that he would succumb to hypothermia as his shirt was wet.Well he z still holding onto that shirt.At the end of the flight fiasco, the safe landing had earned its place in aviation history as a study in flight safety and the pilots make us feel that miracles still happen and sometimes you don't even have to look for it.

~A,humbled by the power of life

P.S. : In a quirky indication that the plane actually had good luck, the New York State Lottery said the numbers 1549 -- the flight's designation -- are sold out through next Tuesday night on the Win 4. Wagering on numbers 1549 has been cut off because they've already reached the $5 million cap.