Air accidents don't always turn into tragedy. The professionalism, courage and dexterity of the crews often prevented a tragedy. The miraculous of heaven exist: we have met some.
Listen to this extraordinary story told by Anne-Emmanuelle Isaac in audio on your favorite app
Miraculous landing on the Hudson:
The weather is clear, but the cold is sharp, this Thursday, January 15, 2009 at LaGuardia Airport, in New York. It's 15 p.m. and US Airways Flight 1549 is about to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina. This is the last stretch of four consecutive days of work for its drivers. Chesley Sullenberger, nicknamed "Sully" by his peers, 57, is the captain; Jeffrey Skiles, 49, the co-pilot. Sully is a former military pilot, and Jeffrey has just completed his training on the aircraft being piloted: an Airbus A320. The two men are focused and are tapping the control buttons of the Multifunction Control and Display Unit (MCDU), which American pilots affectionately nickname "Mac-Doo".
Read also» READ ALSO - Sully, the story of Commander Chesley B. Sullenberger
This aircraft is the flight director of the aircraft. It integrates a lot of data from which it will automate air travel. For example, it contains information about the Standard Instrument Departure (SID), the Standard Terminal Arrival Route (Star), the transfer points during the flight, or the weight of fuel on board. The "Mac-Doo" has two screens (one per pilot), located on the centre console of the Airbus cockpit.
The turbines were launched and, after a short taxiing, Flight 1549 lined up on the threshold of its runway. "Toga"! This word is a contraction of "Take off/Go around", and means "full throttle" (as well as "go-around"). Jeffrey is the "Pilot on Duty" (PEF). It is he who moves the thrust levers of the two CFM-56 engines towards the instrument panel. The plane accelerates rapidly. "V1" (decision speed, up to which it is possible to abort take-off in the event of engine failure) at around 270 km/h, "rotation" (take-off speed, the nose of the aircraft is raised), and finally "positive vario" (the needle of the variometer indicates a certainty of take-off), the A 320 leaves the ground to make its "initial climb" at nearly 400 km/h.
Geese in the combustion chamber
A minute and a half later, the plane seemed to suffocate. "It was like we hit a wall," said one passenger. The two dials of the "N1", the indicator that gives the value of the thrust, drop sharply to zero. Both reactors shut down simultaneously. Sully takes over the reins. After turning the engine management switch to "IGN/Start", Jeffrey attempts to re-ignite the turbines by pushing a small lever forward. Nothing helps. Canada geese weighing 4.5 kg rushed into the combustion chamber of the two "boilers". The mighty Airbus became a glider.
The A320 "lands" on the Hudson at more than 200 km/h. Wall of water on the windshield. The two pilots, strapped into their seats, took the shock, as did the passengers
null
What to do? Coming back to LaGuardia? Diversion to Teterboro, a small airport on the west bank of the Hudson River? Another and final attempt to re-ignite the reactors. The "optimum speed" for this procedure, according to the manual, is 300 knots (560 km/h). The Airbus now flies at only 170 knots (315 km/h). Sully, an experienced glider pilot, instinctively "feels" the situation. His Airbus won't get very far.
At the controls of a flying club plane or a wide-body aircraft, all the pilots did "engine failure" exercises. They then learned to take into account the "glideness" of their aircraft, i.e. the ratio of the range to the altitude lost, which is defined by a number. It reaches 60 for some very aerodynamic gliders, which means that the aircraft can fly 60 kilometers if it is flying at an altitude of 1 kilometer. The "glide" of the Airbus A320 of Flight 1549 is only 17. The plane in distress over New York will only be able to travel, at best, a few kilometers. Not enough to reach one of the two nearby airports.
Sully makes the decision to land in the Hudson. It's a very risky bet. In 1996, the pilots of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767, which ran out of fuel following a hijacking, tried to ditch in the Comoros. Of the 175 passengers, 125 did not survive. Sully also made another decision: he turned on the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit), a turbo-generator placed in the tail of the plane. The Airbus' circuits are therefore supplied with energy. The aircraft's electrical controls, which allow it to steer, are fully activated. Connected to computers, they will determine the lowest lift speed.
» READ ALSO - Singapore-Sydney flight: when the A380 engine explodes in mid-air
"Prepare for impact," the captain calmly tells the passengers. Sully asks Jeffrey to only partially deploy the high-lift flaps, so as not to brake the plane more than necessary. He keeps the landing gear retracted. Then, with his left hand, he gently moves the short joystick of the Airbus into the "aft sector". The aircraft stands in the "full nose-up" position: the tail will touch the water first. Above all, Sully keeps the wings flat so that the plane is not thrown off balance during this forced landing.
SEE ALSO - Why Boeing 737 Max Crashes
We make solid, in Toulouse!
The A320 "lands" on the Hudson at more than 200 km/h. Wall of water on the windshield. The two pilots, strapped into their seats, took the shock, as did the passengers. They feel like they're on board a submarine when they see the waters of the river coming in at mid-porthole. Then everything stops and the water starts to seep into the cabin. The Airbus lost one of its engines, but it is whole. We make solid, in Toulouse! Sully won his bet. Most of the 150 passengers don't have a scratch. No fewer than seven ferries and 1,200 lifeguards will take part in their rescue.
On May 25, 2008, a Kallita Air Boeing 747 crashed in Brussels for the same reasons as US Airways Flight 1549: massive ingestion of birds by an engine. DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP FORUM
US Airways Flight 1549 collided with geese more than 7 kilometres from its runway. These birds have settled around LaGuardia; It wasn't the first time an airliner had hit them. Most of the time, they only cause impacts on the body. Bird hazard is a threat to all airports. A few months earlier, on 25 May 2008, in Brussels, a Kallita Air Boeing 747 had left the runway after one of its four engines ingested a kestrel falcon, breaking into three sections. Luckily, the four crew members and the only passenger (it was a cargo flight carrying 76 tons of cargo, more than half of which was U.S. diplomatic mail) escaped unharmed. Specialists track birds at all airport hubs. Avian radars specialized in their detection are gradually being set up. But birds flew in the sky long before planes.
Sully, an American Hero
Born in 1951, the son of a dentist and a schoolteacher, descended from Swiss and German immigrants, he made his first flight on a glider at the age of 16. After a master's degree in occupational psychology, he turned his passion for aviation into reality by becoming a fighter pilot from 1973 to 1980 in the US Air Force (USAF) on F-4 Phantom IIs. A powerful and capable aircraft, emblematic of the Vietnam War, but renowned for its rough temperament. "The Phantom is a living proof that with enough power, even a brick can fly," said those who held his commands.
Mario Anzuoni/REUTERS
When you've driven like that for years, you're capable of driving anything. Sully has been with US Airways since leaving the military, also becoming a recognized aviation safety specialist over the years. Despite his seniority with the company and his excellent reputation, US Airways kept him off the air during the eighteen months of the investigation, going so far as to reduce his salary.
Some experts maintain that Sully could have landed in LaGuardia or Teterboro. This suspicion will be dispelled after a simulation of the flight. This will be the subject of an admirable scene in the film Sully, with Tom Hanks (pictured above) in the title role (2016), directed by Clint Eastwood. "After the events of January 15, I am convinced that we will forever be bound in heart and soul," Commander Sullenberger told the passengers of Flight 1549. Competent, modest, sensitive, he is a hero as America loves them. Asked if he could pull off such a performance again, his co-driver Jeffrey Skiles simply replied: "Yes, but in July!"