紐約飛機水上迫降新聞分析之五

今天，新聞披露了部分機長的account of the story。值得注意的一點是，機長對選擇迫降地點的考慮，考慮的是避免飛過新澤西北部的人口聚集區，而不是之前所說的unable to make the proper turn. 機長現在這個說法，無疑增加了人性的色彩，英雄形象更加高大起來。
我個人認為，原來的理由可能更自然，是自然的、被迫無奈的選擇。現在這個說法，雖然增加了人性的光輝，但總有點不自然的感覺。選擇河上降落，河岸邊的曼哈頓街區的人口是否更加密集？
選擇河上迫降，有一個很好的理由。飛機迫降前，為避免起火爆炸，是要放空油箱的。在短短幾分鍾的時間裏，使不可能放空油箱的。這樣的話，水麵上降落的撞擊力就比陸地上要小得多，因而起火爆炸的可能性也降低了很多。機長為什麽不用這個作為理由呢？為什麽呢？這裏的一個疑問就是：這架飛機到底放油了沒有呢？

Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger said that in the few minutes he had to decide where to set down the powerless plane Thursday afternoon, he felt it was "too low, too slow" and near too many buildings to go anywhere else, according to the National Transportation Safety Board account of his testimony.

The pilot and his first officer provided their first account to NTSB investigators Saturday of what unfolded inside US Airways Flight 1549 in the moments after it slammed into a flock of birds and lost both engines.

Co-pilot Jeff Skiles, who was flying the plane at takeoff, saw the birds coming in perfect formation, and made note of it. Sullenberger looked up, and in an instant his windscreen was filled with big, dark-brown birds.

The account illustrated how quickly things deteriorated after the bump at 3,000 feet, and the pilots' swift realization that returning to LaGuardia or getting to another airport was impossible.

The blow had come out of nowhere. The NTSB said radar data confirmed that the aircraft intersected a group of "primary targets," almost certainly birds, as the jet climbed over the Bronx. Those targets had not been on the radar screen of the air traffic controller who approved the departure, Higgins said.

Returning to LaGuardia, he quickly realized, was out. So was nearby Teterboro Airport, where he had never flown before, and which would require him to take the jet over densely populated northern New Jersey.

"We can't do it," he told air traffic controllers. "We're gonna be in the Hudson."

所有跟帖： 

• 看了你的報道，好象你才是真正的英雄！！ -qqww- ♂ (0 bytes) () 01/17/2009 postreply 21:05:37

• 你說什麽就是什麽吧。高興了？ -師母已呆- ♂ (26 bytes) () 01/17/2009 postreply 21:14:23