Computer generated flight of Sully's plane

[davbrucas]

[helosailor]

Fate put Sully on that plane on that day. No other pilot has been able to make the landing he made in a simulator. They all crashed. Absolutely brilliant airmanship.
That video was very cool with the exact timeline of everything synced up.

[SS Junk]

Movie was awesome.

[davbrucas]

Fate put Sully on that plane on that day. No other pilot has been able to make the landing he made in a simulator. They all crashed. Absolutely brilliant airmanship.
That video was very cool with the exact timeline of everything synced up.

Not true...I am friends with a pilot who said every pilot that he knows took ran the sim and they all either safely made it back to the airport or safely landed in the Hudson. Granted, they knew they were in a sim and knew when the birds would hit which helped them directing the flight immediately after the birds hit. But, he said they installed a delay right after the birds hit to simulate the initial shock and damage assessment and several crashed attempting to get back to the airport.
But, in his opinion, Capt Sully made the right choice at that time regardless of what the data and sims showed.

[David]

Not true...I am friends with a pilot who said every pilot that he knows took ran the sim and they all either safely made it back to the airport or safely landed in the Hudson. Granted, they knew they were in a sim and knew when the birds would hit which helped them directing the flight immediately after the birds hit. But, he said they installed a delay right after the birds hit to simulate the initial shock and damage assessment and several crashed attempting to get back to the airport.
But, in his opinion, Capt Sully made the right choice at that time regardless of what the data and sims showed.

I've read the same. Most pilots don't think he has done anything extraordinary other than the fame that's come along with the incident. Most pilots I've talked to and have read from all say anyone in his position should be able to do this.

[helosailor]

Not true...I am friends with a pilot who said every pilot that he knows took ran the sim and they all either safely made it back to the airport or safely landed in the Hudson. Granted, they knew they were in a sim and knew when the birds would hit which helped them directing the flight immediately after the birds hit. But, he said they installed a delay right after the birds hit to simulate the initial shock and damage assessment and several crashed attempting to get back to the airport.
But, in his opinion, Capt Sully made the right choice at that time regardless of what the data and sims showed.

Yeah, I'd imagine that some have been able to get it down safely in light of what is known now. I haven't talked with anyone that attempted it in quite a few years. As good as sims are, they still lack a lot compared to real-world. I found that out real quick in the H-60. When they let me have the controls the first time, I was like "Whoa, this a VERY different". But everything felt familiar, if that makes any sense.

[Chili]

Really interesting stuff, thanks for posting it.

[SS Junk]

Supposedly the sims that were run during the investigation proved otherwise. They could make it to either airport immediately after the bird strike, but given the amount of delay between the bird strike, attempting to stabilize the aircraft and turning around to try an approach to either airport they did not have enough altitude.

[davbrucas]

Apparently he did not lose thrust in the left engine as he stated. He cut the power to both engines and lost altitude to point where he had to ditch. Just before impact the copilot resume thrust on the engine and gained altitude, but at that point I assume Sully did not want to chance aborting the water landing. My friend says based on the data, he did in fact have enough thrust to gain altitude enough to make it to the airport. If people had been killed Sully would not have been the hero he has been made out to be.

[SS Junk]

watch the movie. it covers it all.

[dmh165638]

Apparently he did not lose thrust in the left engine as he stated. He cut the power to both engines and lost altitude to point where he had to ditch. Just before impact the copilot resume thrust on the engine and gained altitude, but at that point I assume Sully did not want to chance aborting the water landing. My friend says based on the data, he did in fact have enough thrust to gain altitude enough to make it to the airport. If people had been killed Sully would not have been the hero he has been made out to be.

Instead of basing your opinion off of what friends say or on a over sensationalized Hollywood movie try looking into the actual NTSB investigation. You might be surprised at what you find. Below is a link to the entire NTSB report which is way to much boring reading for 99.99% percent of us. I have also pasted a few important sections of the investigation for the TLDR crowd. Every pilot that completed the landings in the simulator was 100% pre-briefed on the facts of the flight and exactly what actions to take. This removed the human decision making time of following airline procedures for a non-ECAM event, QRH, and Engine Dual Failure Checklist. I would guess things are considerably different in a simulator versus in the air with 155 on board.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...34495766,d.eWE

2.2.3 Engine Damage
The engines were certificated to withstand the ingestion of birds of a specified weight in accordance with the certification standards and still produce sufficient power to sustain flight. (The certification requirements are discussed in section 2.2.5.) However, during this event, each engine ingested at least two Canada geese weighing about 8 pounds each, which significantly exceeded the certification standards, and neither engine was able to produce sufficient power to sustain flight after ingesting these birds. This section will discuss the progression of the damage to the engine parts, starting with the engine spinners and moving to the cores, to explain at which point in the bird-ingestion sequence the damage occurred that prevented the production of sufficient power to sustain flight

2.2.3.1 Engine Spinner, Fan Blade, and Fan Inlet Case Damage
If a bird enters the engine inlet near the inner radius (near the spinner), a portion of it may be ingested by the engine core because of the radius’ proximity to the core. Both engine spinners on the accident airplane exhibited soft-body impact damage, indicating that both engines ingested a bird very near the inner radius of the engine inlet and that some of that bird mass entered the engine core. Although all of the left and right engine fan blades were present and intact, three of the left engine fan blades and five of the right engine fan blades exhibited damage indicating that both engines ingested a second bird near the fan midspan, but, because it was ingested near the edge of the fan blades, none of that bird mass entered the core. When a turbofan engine ingests birds and no fan blades are fractured, the damage to the fan blades is generally localized because the bird will affect only those fan blades that actually impact or slice it as it passes through the fan plane. The number of fan blades affected by the impact is determined by the bird size, the relative bird velocity with respect to the airplane, the rotational fan speed, and the bird-impact angle. As the fan blades impact and slice the bird, the impact forces against the fan blades can be high enough to permanently deform and twist them as they bend and vibrate in response to the impact. Although the fan blades of both engines showed evidence of bird ingestion and subsequent mechanical damage, as noted, no significant fan blade damage or fractures were found. Gouging was found on both engines’ forward acoustical panels in the fan inlet case. Turbofan engine fan blades are designed to accelerate only compressible materials, such as air. When rotating fan blades contact a denser, noncompressible material, such as water, they will “bite” into the water, which will cause the blades to bend forward and cause gouging. Therefore,
the fan rotors of both engines were rotating upon water impact.

2.2.3.2 Engine Core Damage
Because the fan spins rapidly, the fan blades protect the engine core by centrifugally slinging foreign objects outward into the bypass duct; therefore, most foreign objects that enter the engine inlet strike the fan blades and exit through the bypass duct, causing only fan blade damage. The spinner shape is also designed to deflect foreign objects outward to the bypass duct. However, only foreign objects of a limited size and consistency can be centrifuged or deflected from the engine’s core. Disassembly and examination of the engines revealed that two LPC IGVs in each engine had fractured because of the bird ingestion and were subsequently ingested into the engine cores, where they initiated secondary damage to the LPC and HPC. Immediately thereafter, the engine cores were incapable of supplying power to the fans; therefore, the fans could no longer rotate and produce sufficient thrust to sustain flight. In addition, damage to the left engine HPC VGVs resulted in the blockage of most of the airflow through the compressor. The insufficient airflow into the combustor to cool the engine and through the LPT to drive the fan resulted in the loss of left engine power. Although the airflow was not blocked in the right engine as it was in the left engine, the destruction of all of the HPC VGVs and the fracture of several compressor blades caused the loss of directional control of the airflow into the compressor, causing it to stall continuously, with no recovery possible, and, eventually, to lose power. In summary, the NTSB concludes that both engines were operating normally until they each ingested at least two large birds (weighing about 8 pounds each), one of which was ingested into each engine core, causing mechanical damage that prevented the engines from being able to provide sufficient thrust to sustain flight.

[SS Junk]

... or on a over sensationalized Hollywood movie try looking into the actual NTSB investigation.... This removed the human decision making time of following airline procedures for a non-ECAM event, QRH, and Engine Dual Failure Checklist. I would guess things are considerably different in a simulator versus in the air with 155 on board.

Movie covered this as well. Watch it.

[davbrucas]

Instead of basing your opinion off of what friends say or on a over sensationalized Hollywood movie try looking into the actual NTSB investigation. You might be surprised at what you find. Below is a link to the entire NTSB report which is way to much boring reading for 99.99% percent of us. I have also pasted a few important sections of the investigation for the TLDR crowd. Every pilot that completed the landings in the simulator was 100% pre-briefed on the facts of the flight and exactly what actions to take. This removed the human decision making time of following airline procedures for a non-ECAM event, QRH, and Engine Dual Failure Checklist. I would guess things are considerably different in a simulator versus in the air with 155 on board.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...34495766,d.eWE

2.2.3 Engine Damage
The engines were certificated to withstand the ingestion of birds of a specified weight in accordance with the certification standards and still produce sufficient power to sustain flight. (The certification requirements are discussed in section 2.2.5.) However, during this event, each engine ingested at least two Canada geese weighing about 8 pounds each, which significantly exceeded the certification standards, and neither engine was able to produce sufficient power to sustain flight after ingesting these birds. This section will discuss the progression of the damage to the engine parts, starting with the engine spinners and moving to the cores, to explain at which point in the bird-ingestion sequence the damage occurred that prevented the production of sufficient power to sustain flight

2.2.3.1 Engine Spinner, Fan Blade, and Fan Inlet Case Damage
If a bird enters the engine inlet near the inner radius (near the spinner), a portion of it may be ingested by the engine core because of the radius’ proximity to the core. Both engine spinners on the accident airplane exhibited soft-body impact damage, indicating that both engines ingested a bird very near the inner radius of the engine inlet and that some of that bird mass entered the engine core. Although all of the left and right engine fan blades were present and intact, three of the left engine fan blades and five of the right engine fan blades exhibited damage indicating that both engines ingested a second bird near the fan midspan, but, because it was ingested near the edge of the fan blades, none of that bird mass entered the core. When a turbofan engine ingests birds and no fan blades are fractured, the damage to the fan blades is generally localized because the bird will affect only those fan blades that actually impact or slice it as it passes through the fan plane. The number of fan blades affected by the impact is determined by the bird size, the relative bird velocity with respect to the airplane, the rotational fan speed, and the bird-impact angle. As the fan blades impact and slice the bird, the impact forces against the fan blades can be high enough to permanently deform and twist them as they bend and vibrate in response to the impact. Although the fan blades of both engines showed evidence of bird ingestion and subsequent mechanical damage, as noted, no significant fan blade damage or fractures were found. Gouging was found on both engines’ forward acoustical panels in the fan inlet case. Turbofan engine fan blades are designed to accelerate only compressible materials, such as air. When rotating fan blades contact a denser, noncompressible material, such as water, they will “bite” into the water, which will cause the blades to bend forward and cause gouging. Therefore,
the fan rotors of both engines were rotating upon water impact.

2.2.3.2 Engine Core Damage
Because the fan spins rapidly, the fan blades protect the engine core by centrifugally slinging foreign objects outward into the bypass duct; therefore, most foreign objects that enter the engine inlet strike the fan blades and exit through the bypass duct, causing only fan blade damage. The spinner shape is also designed to deflect foreign objects outward to the bypass duct. However, only foreign objects of a limited size and consistency can be centrifuged or deflected from the engine’s core. Disassembly and examination of the engines revealed that two LPC IGVs in each engine had fractured because of the bird ingestion and were subsequently ingested into the engine cores, where they initiated secondary damage to the LPC and HPC. Immediately thereafter, the engine cores were incapable of supplying power to the fans; therefore, the fans could no longer rotate and produce sufficient thrust to sustain flight. In addition, damage to the left engine HPC VGVs resulted in the blockage of most of the airflow through the compressor. The insufficient airflow into the combustor to cool the engine and through the LPT to drive the fan resulted in the loss of left engine power. Although the airflow was not blocked in the right engine as it was in the left engine, the destruction of all of the HPC VGVs and the fracture of several compressor blades caused the loss of directional control of the airflow into the compressor, causing it to stall continuously, with no recovery possible, and, eventually, to lose power. In summary, the NTSB concludes that both engines were operating normally until they each ingested at least two large birds (weighing about 8 pounds each), one of which was ingested into each engine core, causing mechanical damage that prevented the engines from being able to provide sufficient thrust to sustain flight.

I have not seen the movie. I was not there and do not know the details and was just passing on what I was told by someone whom I respect. He flew the jets in the Navy and has been a commercial airline pilot for years.
Anyway, there's no way the NTSB report could be wrong as the govt never lies.

[dmh165638]

Movie covered this as well. Watch it.

I actually went to see it on opening night and really enjoyed it. As with any Hollywood movie "based on actual events" or "based on a true story" I like to dig through all the added drama for the audience's benefit. The movie followed the facts of the flight and rescue perfectly. It was at that point that Clint Eastwood decided to embellish the story and play the good guy/bad guy card.

[likeitfast55]

Never forget Hollywood will embellish events to sell tickets. They have been doing this about aviation for years.

When a situation happens, we have mere seconds to decide. That is why we are given total authority to meet the extent of said emergency.

I will never criticize a fellow flight crew on their decision. (unless it is blatant incompetence)

The NTSB does it correct 99.99% of the time, like most professionals.


It is a movie, nothing more, nothing less. Entertainment only.