National Transportation Safety Board
Washington, DC 20594
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 4, 2010
SB-10-16
Washington, DC — In addition to the decisions and actions of
the flight crewmembers, overwater safety equipment likely
saved lives that might have otherwise been lost to drowning,
the NTSB said.
Today the Safety Board met to conclude its 15-month
investigation into the January 15, 2009, accident in which a
US Airways A320 jetliner bound for Charlotte was ditched
into the Hudson River after striking a flock of Canada geese
shortly after departing New York’s LaGuardia Airport. All of
the 150 passengers and five crewmembers survived.
Investigators said that had the airplane not been equipped
with forward slide/rafts, many of the 64 occupants of those
rafts would likely have been submerged in the 41-degree
Hudson River, potentially causing a phenomenon called “cold
shock,” which can lead to drowning in as little as five
minutes.
The accident flight had the additional safety equipment
available only because the particular aircraft operated that
day happened to be certified for extended overwater (EOW)
operations even though current FAA regulations did not
require the flight from New York to Charlotte to be so
equipped.
Good visibility, calm waters, and proximity of passenger
ferries, which rescued everyone on flight 1549 within 20
minutes, were other post-accident factors the Safety Board
credited with the survival of all aboard the aircraft.
“Once the birds and the airplane collided and the accident
became inevitable, so many things went right,” said NTSB
Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. “This is a great example of
the professionalism of the crewmembers, air traffic
controllers and emergency responders who all played a role
in preserving the safety of everyone aboard.”
The Safety Board said that the probable cause of the
accident was the ingestion of large birds into each engine,
resulting in an almost total loss of engine power.
Contributing to the severity of the fuselage damage and
resulting unavailability of the aft slide/rafts, the Board
cited the FAA’s inadequate ditching certification standards,
lack of industry training on ditching techniques, and the
captain’s resulting difficulty maintaining his intended
airspeed on final approach due to task saturation resulting
from the emergency situation.
The report adopted by the Safety Board today validated the
Captain’s decision to ditch into the Hudson River saying
that it “provided the highest probability that the accident
would be survivable.” Contributing to the survivability of
the accident was the crew resource management between the
captain and first officer, which allowed them to maintain
control of the airplane, increasing the survivability of the
impact with the water.
In addressing the hazards that birds pose to aircraft of all
sizes, the report noted that most bird strike events occur
within 500 feet of the ground while flight 1549 struck geese
at 2700 feet. Investigators said that this difference
demonstrates that “bird strike hazards to commercial
aircraft are not limited to any predictable scenario.”
Concluding that engine screens or changes to design would
not be a viable solution to protect against bird ingestion
events on commercial jetliners, the Board made it clear that
the potential for significant damage from encounters with
birds remains a challenge to the aviation community.
As part of its extensive examination into the behavior of
the passengers and crewmembers from the time the plane left
the gate at LaGuardia to the moment the last person was
rescued in the river, the Board noted that since most of the
passengers indicated that they had not paid attention to the
preflight oral safety briefing, “more creative and effective
methods of conveying safety information to passengers” was
needed. Survival factors investigators also found that
passengers had significant problems in donning the life
vests that were stowed under each seat.
The Board made 35 safety recommendations on engine and
aircraft certification standards, checklist design, flight
crew training, airport wildlife mitigation, cabin safety
equipment, and preflight passenger briefings.
“I believe the safety recommendations that have come out of
this investigation have an extraordinary origin — a very
serious accident in which everyone survived,” said Chairman
Hersman. “Even in an accident where everyone survives, there
are lessons learned and areas that could use improvement.
Our report today takes these lessons learned so that, if our
recommendations are implemented, every passenger and
crewmember may have the opportunity to benefit from the
advances in safety.”
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