17 January 2009

CAP: CAP Pilot Reviews Hudson Crash


Retired Airbus 320 Pilot, Civil Air Patrol Captain Tedd Sheyda comments on the Hudson accident in a recent interviw with Savannah, Gerorgia's WSAV News.

"One of the features of the design of the Airbus is it has a ditching switch which enables the pilot, when they realize they’re going to have to put the airplane down on the water, it closes all the valves on the outside of the airplane, the outdoor valves and some of the valves that are open during flight,” Sheyda said. “It electronically closes those valves so it enables the aircraft to become more or less water-tight. Of course water’s eventually going to get into the airplane, but that’s a feature that helped that airplane stay afloat,” he added.

"Since the event made the news, Sheyda has kept a close eye on the coverage. His take is that the pilot did a marvelous job getting the plane down, considering the circumstances, and luckily some of those circumstances were ultimately in their favor."

“They were very fortunate that was right near the ferry route that goes from New Jersey to New York so there were quite a few boats that were there very, very quickly,” Sheyda said. “It’s a very safe airplane and very easy to fly airplane, too.“

Video here...

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