Airbus A320 accident near Weehawken, NJ

On January 15, 2009, an Airbus A320 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Weehawken, NJ. 5 people were seriously injured. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.

Date

January 15, 2009

Place

Weehawken, NJ

Aircraft

Airbus A320 · Airplane

Injuries

0 fatal, 5 serious, 0 minor

Damage

Substantial

Position

40.770°N, 74.005°W

NTSB ID

20090115X73226

Official records · DCA09MA026

• Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
• Investigation page: status, final report and safety recommendations

Air traffic control records

• ATC 3A - Factual Report of Group Chairman: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3C - Attachment 1 LGA Tower Position Logs: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3D- Attachment 2 N90 Departure Control Position Log: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• ATC 3E - Attachment 3 FAA Accident Package: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
• Transcript - Public Hearing Day 1 (06/09/09): Transcript (PDF), on ntsb.gov

NTSB summary

The Safety Board’s full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/A_Acc1.htm. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-10/03. On January 15, 2009, about 1527 eastern standard time, US Airways flight 1549, an Airbus Industrie A320-214, N106US, experienced an almost complete loss of thrust in both engines after encountering a flock of birds and was subsequently ditched on the Hudson River about 8.5 miles from LaGuardia Airport (LGA), New York City, New York. The flight was en route to Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, and had departed LGA about 2 minutes before the in-flight event occurred. The 150 passengers, including a lap held child, and 5 crewmembers evacuated the airplane via the forward and overwing exits. One flight attendant and four passengers were seriously injured, and the airplane was substantially damaged. The scheduled, domestic passenger flight was operating under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 on an instrument flight rules flight plan. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident.

Probable cause

The ingestion of large birds into each engine, which resulted in an almost total loss of thrust in both engines and the subsequent ditching on the Hudson River. Contributing to the fuselage damage and resulting unavailability of the aft slide/rafts were (1) the Federal Aviation Administration’s approval of ditching certification without determining whether pilots could attain the ditching paramete

From Wikipedia

US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways domestic flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte and Seattle, that ditched onto the Hudson River shortly after takeoff on January 15, 2009, due to a double engine failure caused by a bird strike. The Airbus A320 operating the flight, registered N106US, struck a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, resulting in a dual engine failure. Given their position in relation to the available airports and their low altitude, pilots Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to glide the aircraft into a water landing on the Hudson River near Midtown Manhattan, doing so without significant damage to the aircraft. All 155 people on board survived and were rescued by nearby boats, although 100 people were injured, 5 seriously. The time from the bird strike to the ditching was less than four minutes.

Text from Wikipedia, “US Airways Flight 1549”, CC BY-SA 4.0; shortened to the introduction. Authors.

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Browse: New Jersey · Airbus aircraft

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Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.