Skip to content

Friday, 30 January 2009

How to get an Airbus A320 out of the Hudson river

Take one drowned Airbus and one chilly Hudson River. The rest is engineering: 

4 Comments

  1. Spammy1
    Posted Sunday, 1 February 2009 at 1:01 am | Permalink

    Excellent pics. Did the birds do that to the engine or was it the ditching?. I imagine A LOT of water pushed into them at impact

  2. David
    Posted Sunday, 1 February 2009 at 3:49 pm | Permalink

    David,
    Useful info in case you ever have this problem

    Cheers / John

  3. Ben@Crikey
    Posted Monday, 2 February 2009 at 10:20 am | Permalink

    One engine broke off on impact as intended in a ditching. The other remained attached. The design rules anticipate that the major deceleration in a ditching comes from engine drag in low wing designs like the A320, and that the risk of damage to the wing and its buoyancy would be minimised if the engine comes off. The investigation will tell us to what extent these and other assumptions about how such a jet would behave in a ditching have been verified.

  4. Nadia
    Posted Friday, 30 January 2009 at 2:12 pm | Permalink

    Amazing photos! And scary how much damage a flock of birds can do, looking at the exploded engine.