'Miracle on Hudson' airliner being auctioned; in Kearny storage now

Friday, January 22, 2010
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

KEARNY - A piece of "The Miracle" can be yours.

Sections of the salvaged Airbus A320 Flight 1549 that was ditched in the Hudson last January by Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles are on the auction block.

Stripped of its engine, parts of the massive plane that are up for grabs include propellers, landing gear, wheels and wings, along with the fuselage, according to the Internet site AVWeb.

What's been salvaged of the "Miracle on the Hudson" Airbus is being held at the J. Supor & Son Trucking and Rigging Co., Inc., on Bergen Avenue in Kearny.

The splashdown in the icy Hudson River off Weehawken on Jan. 15, 2009 elicited a massive emergency response from several Hudson County agencies and businesses. Many of the 155 passengers and crew members who survived were treated in Hudson County hospitals.

New York Waterway workers and first responders in Hudson County were hailed as heroes for their efforts getting the passengers and crew members off the sinking plane.

The auction is being run by Chartis Aerospace Insurance Services.

According to AVWeb, an inspection of the plane will be scheduled probably within the next 45 days.

The aircraft is for sale "as is," the Web site states, and the buyer must move it from its storage site in Kearny by April 10 or take over the storage payments.

The wreckage was treated with a corrosion inhibitor last summer, but otherwise has not been repaired. The auction closes March 27.

The auction is open to the general public and bids can be submitted online.

To check out the salvaged parts go to: http://www.aigaviation.com/aviationsa ... edetail.aspx?faano=N106US.

Because There Was More Than One Miracle On the Hudson

By Chris Rovzar
New York Magazine
Dec 13, 2009

On top of an FDNY rescue boat, Ben Bostic and Laura Zych revisit the fateful occasion that brought them together.

While waiting in La Guardia airport for his flight back home to Charlotte, North Carolina, on January 15, 2009, Ben Bostic happened to notice Laura Zych, a chic, pretty brunette. She ended up on the same plane, but not the same row. ?I would have totally forgotten about it,? he said later, ?if it weren?t for the things that happened.?

What happened, of course, was that Ben and Laura?s flight, US Airways 1549, collided with a flock of geese shortly after taking off and suffered engine failure. Forced to make quick decisions, Captain Chesley Sullenberger steered the rapidly descending plane onto the Hudson River. He made a spectacular, flawless landing. Within minutes, the passengers and crew had filed out on the wings, and ferryboats of all types were en route to rescue them. Everyone survived. It was, as Governor Paterson called it later that day, a Miracle on the Hudson.

Bostic and Zych were on separate rescue boats; they didn?t formally meet until 60 Minutes arranged a tearful reunion with many of the passengers, along with Sullenberger and the crew, down in Charlotte in February. At that time, many passengers were still suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic-stress disorder, but the gathering helped. Then, in July, Kristy Spears (seat 8A) hosted a reunion in her home outside Charlotte. Zych (seat 17B) met up with Amy Jolly (seat 14C), whom she had befriended through a survivors? Facebook group. Bostic hung out with them, but had to leave early and drive out of town for another party. Late that night, they persuaded him to drive back, and Zych offered to let him crash at her place. ?I didn?t think of it until the next day, but it was the second time I crashed with them,? says Bostic, who calls going back into town that night ?one of the best decisions I?d ever made.? He and Zych ended up talking on her porch until six in the morning. ?I had to work the next day. And I didn?t care! At that time, that?s exactly what I wanted to do.? The couple have been dating ever since.

The Flight 1549 gang, whose stories have been collected in the new book Miracle on the Hudson, has become very tight-knit. ?Even the first time you meet someone from that flight, it?s like you?re instantly bonded,? says Zych. ?You can?t be around this group of people and not feel good.? They are planning a big reunion next month in New York. The 1549ers calls their gatherings ?celebrate life? nights, and in the same vein, Zych and Bostic have adopted the habit of dancing to their favorite music every night before they go to bed. ?We do that as part of our decompressing and loving life,? she says. ?Just so that your day ends on a good note.?

Read more: Because There Was More Than One Miracle on the Hudson
see video
http://nymag.com/news/articles/reasonstoloveny/2009/

Good video.

Jet?s Fuselage Goes to Salvage Yard

New York Times
By JACK HEALY
January 31, 2009

The US Airways jet that splashed down in the Hudson River two weeks ago was hauled to a salvage yard in Harrison, N.J., on Saturday afternoon, federal officials said.

The plane is expected to remain there for 12 to 18 months, until the National Transportation Safety Board finishes an investigation into how the plane?s engines failed, said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the board.

Just seconds after taking off from La Guardia Airport on Jan. 15, US Airways Flight 1549 struck what the pilot said was a flock of birds, and both engines quit. The pilot, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III, brought the plane down on the river, and the passengers clambered onto the wings and were rescued by boats and ferries.

All 155 people on board survived.

Most of the wreckage has been at the Weeks Marine in Jersey City since the plane was lifted out of the river on Jan. 17. Crews had removed the wings, which were taken to the Harrison salvage yard on Friday.

Mr. Knudson said investigators had no immediate plans to reinspect the Airbus A320, but said it would remain in secure storage in case they needed to.

The American International Group, which insures US Airways, will take possession of the plane once the investigation is complete, the airline said.

As the fuselage was hauled through New Jersey on a flatbed trailer on Saturday, flanked by police motorcycles, people snapped photos and uploaded them onto their Flickr pages and sent them to news Web sites.

?The fuselage is kind of hard to move without being noticed,? Mr. Knudson said.

Yes. I saw it on JFK and Belmont at 3:04pm. I was all p'd off about the back up and then....whoa...there's the plane! How do I post a pic?

Great Photos on the Journals' website


http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... airways_jet_that_cra.html

How are they taking the plane to Harrison when its heading the opposite direction down Communpaw Ave. Looks like its heading to Harrison Ave, not Harrison NJ.

The plane is being transported to Harrison. I will be writing more about it for the Hudson Reporter website www.hudsonreporter.com breaking news section, for those who read the website. Nice video, I wish I could have seen it being transported. Take care.

Did anyone else see the plane from the Hudson River crash being drivern across Communpaw Ave about 3:30pm today on a flat bed truck? It was quite a site. Here's a video clip. http://s412.photobucket.com/albums/pp ... on=view¤t=Plane.flv

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Yeah, yeah, we all understand the implications of her actions but I would bet almost anything she was freaking out not being "selfish". The Flight crews training kicked in but this passenger never trained for this. I would with-hold judgement when you have no idea how you would react. Several of the passengers didn't even realize they had landed in the river at first.

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Of course it is. I'm sure it was extremely scary situation for everyone, but either one of these people (especially the second lady) could have caused the loss of many lives. Opening the rear door that was under water would make the plane sink very quickly and would more than likely kill a good number of people by drowning -- even those that were already outside of the plane. When you're on a plane you absolutely listen to the crew at all times. I am judging them right now, and I think they're selfish idiots.

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Hardly a time to judge people in a "freak out" moment. We would all like to imagine how we would behave and hopefully we will never have to find out.

Crash showed people at their best ? and worst
By Dan Jennings - Las Vegas Sun

Wed, Jan 21, 2009 (12:21 p.m.)

You may not have heard about the actions of two passengers who came dangerously close to hindering the evacuation and sinking the aircraft.

One passenger, a woman in her 60s, calmly removed her overhead baggage and proceeded up the aisle, as if to disembark at a terminal with suitcase in tow. Once she exited the aircraft, she grasped the wing and refused to let go of her luggage. Saner passengers forced her onto a life raft as her luggage sank to the bottom of the Hudson River. She obviously had not grasped the severity of the situation, or the frigidness of the river, as she angrily screamed about her lost luggage.

A sole flight attendant at the rear of the aircraft made the correct decision to keep the rear exits closed. However, a woman decided that one of the rear doors would be ideal for personal use and attempted to open it. The alert flight attendant was able to secure the door despite a rush of icy water into the plane.

I do not personally know the two passengers in question. However, I bet that when they arrive at their destinations and drive home, they will occupy the fast lane while driving much slower that the speed limit. They will block the grocery aisle with their carts as they examine a product on the opposite side. They will answer their cell phones in the movie theater during critical dialogue. They will ... I think you get the picture.

Perhaps I am being a bit harsh on two people whom I do not know. No, if I were being harsh, I would recommend that both be banned from flying on commercial aircraft for life.

Despite the borderline catastrophic actions by two passengers, the majority of folks kept their cool and paid attention to the trained professionals during this critical incident. The actions of 148 of the 150 passengers ensured that the miraculous landing on an icy river had a happy ending.

Drive down Rt. 169 (440 South) towards Bayonne. Turn at Pulaski Street turn off. Go down Pulaski towards "Waterfront Observation Area (I think on Port Jersey Blvd). You can see the plane at dock right across water in Jersey City. Its about a block away if it was on land.

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You mean next to the scrap metal yard just south of Port Liberte?

I heard its back there by Global.

It's not at a marina. It's by the scrap metal yard just south of Port Liberte

Any one know which Jersey City marina they took the plane to?

US Air jet in in Jersey City marina, cockpit recorder reveals Mayday

By KAREN MATTHEWS ? Associated Press Writer ? January 19, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) ? Investigators are taking a closer look at the damage to a battered USAir jetliner that crashed in the Hudson River and a black-box recording that revealed the thumping sound that cut the plane's two engines and a pilot's "Mayday" call.
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National Transportation Safety Board investigators planned Monday to pore over the wreckage of the jetliner that was towed to a New Jersey marina, looking at engine damage believed to have been caused by a flock of birds. A search for a left engine and other missing pieces of the plane was suspended for two days because of icy weather.

A senior NTSB official said the probe of a plane that safely landed without killing any of the 155 people aboard may ultimately focus more on what went right than what went wrong.

"This accident and this investigation are going to be studied for years and years and years," said Robert Benzon, a veteran National Transportation Safety Board investigators. "Why did everything work so well?

"We need to know that so we can apply it to other phases of aviation, other aircraft, perhaps newer aircraft. It's going to be fun."

NTSB investigators detailed the findings on Sunday of a cockpit voice recording that captured "the sound of thumps and a rapid decrease in engine sounds," NTSB member Kitty Higgins said.

"The captain makes radio call to ATC (air traffic control) calling Mayday and reports that they hit birds, lost both engines and were returning to LaGuardia" airport, Higgins said.

The pilot, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who had only flown as high as 3,200 feet, then discussed alternate landings at New Jersey airports before deciding to attempt a river landing, she said. Ninety seconds before landing, he told passengers to "brace for impact" and "the captain informs ATC that they will be in the Hudson River," Higgins said.

The dispatches on the recordings were described as "a very calm, collected exercise," Benzon said. Said Higgins: "It was very matter of fact."

Under a heavy snowfall Sunday night, tugboats pulled the barge carrying the Airbus A320 from a seawall a few blocks from the World Trade Center site on a 90-minute trip to the Weeks Marina in Jersey City, N.J.

The barge carrying the aircraft and another carrying a large crane arrived at a loading dock on the marina's outskirts, not far from a site where BMW automobiles are unloaded and stored.

Investigators want to look more closely at the cockpit, the attached engine, and the interior of the cabin, Higgins said. They already have seen significant damage to the tail and to compartments at the bottom of the plane that opened on impact. The engine was severely dented but its fan blades were intact, Benzon said.

Higgins heaped praises on the flight crew, noting they all had 20 or more years experience and were trained to do their jobs.

"Miracles happen because a lot of everyday things happen for years and years and years," she said. "These people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it and as a result, nobody lost their life."

Sullenberger had been scheduled to give his first public interview on Monday morning to NBC "Today" show host Matt Lauer, but the appearance was canceled Sunday at the request of the U.S. Airline Pilots Association.

"The Sullenbergers continue to thank their many well-wishers for the incredible outpouring of support," the family said in a statement.

The mayor of his hometown, Danville, Calif., said the pilot and his family were attending President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Tuesday. An Obama aide said Sunday evening the family had been invited, speaking on condition of anonymity because details were still being worked out.

The area where the barge was moored in New York was closed to the public Sunday, but it attracted hundreds of residents and tourists, who snapped pictures of the plane wreckage.

Kelsey Higginbotham, a 20-year-old student at East Tennessee State University, peered at the crippled aircraft Sunday from behind police barricades.

She and a friend had been to Times Square, Central Park and the site of the World Trade Center, where nearly 2,800 people were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. She said she was struck by the contrast between one disaster in which so many people died and another in which everyone survived.

"It's a miracle," she said. "I guess New Yorkers can't take any more tragedy."

___

Associated Press writer Victor Epstein contributed to this report from Jersey City, N.J., Jason Dearen contributed from San Francisco and Lou Kesten contributed from Washington, D.C.

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Ferry captain too modest as rescuers face press

Monday, January 19, 2009
By LISA ZIMMERMANN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

She's been a NY Waterway ferry captain for just six months, but, boy, does she have a story to tell.

Brittany Catanzaro, 20, of Fairview, was one of the first skippers on the scene Thursday after the US Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in the Hudson River. But at a news conference yesterday in Manhattan, she made out the role she and her co-workers played in the miraculous rescue of 155 from the plane to be no big deal.
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"I don't consider myself a hero, it's my job, we train for it," said Catanzaro, who was guiding a ferry named for former Gov. Thomas Kean.

Catanzaro received more accolades a few hours later when Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg held a news conference at Port Imperial ferry terminal in Weehawken and singled her out.

Corzine hugged the Cliffside Park High School graduate afterward.

"Their first response was to make sure that those who were on that plane were looked after immediately," Corzine said of NY Waterway workers.

"Then, obviously, the work of the first-responders - the New Jersey State Police, the New York Police Department, and the Port Authority of NY/NJ. They all came together in a remarkable way to make sure that a life was not lost."

A total of 14 NY Waterway ferries rescued 142 of the 155 people on the plane that took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York and was headed to Charlotte, N.C. It is believed that the plane's engines stopped working when birds were sucked into them shortly after takeoff.

"We all stepped up and made it happen," said NY Waterway Operations Director Allen Warren.

Ferry captain Vincent Lombardi was the first to arrive at the sinking plane aboard the Thomas Jefferson.

"We saw something in the water and thought it was a vessel," Lombardi said. "Then we saw it was a plane."

Ferry captain Manuel Liba, who was on the Smaith ferry, still finds the event surreal.

"It feels like a dream even now," he said.

After NY Waterway personnel answered questions, the company demonstrated how each ferry retrieved the passengers from the airplane's wings.

"I think this is one of those really outstanding good news stories for not only the lives saved, but the efforts of one group of people trying to help another get through," Corzine said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Actually several people saw Obama at the controls next to Sullenberger. Later they saw Lipski flying a news-copter low over Jersey City and pissing out the windows.

Anyone who is trying to make some sort of connection with Obama and this forced water landing, should first see if they can make a connection with their foot and head!

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You forgot to mention that GWB with his supposed experience "running" a oil company, a baseball team and Texas, "ran" the country into the ground. While recent history has favored Governors as presidential candidate, we've had a number of presidents with no executive experience but rich in character, intellect and the knowledge to apply them to the context, most notably Lincoln. The know nothing anti intellectualism of the last 8 years has failed.

That admirable pilot had never crashed before, but he had thought about crashes and prepared for them, rather than simply not believing in them because that would upset his world view. He's a "real Texan", not that pompous poser packing his bags.

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Unfortunately the odds facing that plane are similar to the odds facing the U.S. economy. No one says you have to like the odds, but that is what they are.

What the pilot's training provided him with was judgment under pressure to fly a plane.

Obama has stellar academic credentials, a gift for rhetoric and solid political and life experience all created out of his own talents and effort. I ask you what better training to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," which is the oath of the Presidency, than to be a Constitutional Law Professor? In the same way that pilot has wonderful training for his profession, Obama has impressive training for his profession.

When the pilot was put to the test, he succeeded as a result of training, competence and luck. I hope, now that Obama is being put to the test, that his training, competence and a lot of luck carry the day.

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If these are the odds, I don't like them.

The pilot is a former fighter pilot, with more than 20 years experience flying commercial aircraft and running a flight safety business. In addition to these credentials, he was really lucky that he could make the turns, with no power, to skillfully ditch the plane.

Don't be comparing Obama, with his near-zero experience in running anything, to this pilot.

Please.

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Clearly the scale and the type of the responses required to manage the Katrina response vs. a plane crash are vastly different. I didn't think I needed to state that because it is so obvious.

The only thing I was comparing were competence vs. incompetence. Katrina has become a symbol of incompetence. This plane crash is a symbol of competence.

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Yes I am happy that DHS and FEMA were not in charge of the response, but at the same time, let's not even compare the two. There were a lot of first responders during Katrina that stepped up to the plate and did the best they could under the circumstances.

The temporal and geographic extent of Katrina and 1549 were completely different, and the required response is vastly different.

It's out!

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Wow!!! Nothing but AMAZING!!!!

Footage of the plane hitting the water.

http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=AYNQ-QtF0LM