WASHINGTON — A federal safety panel on Tuesday issued more than two dozen safety recommendations related to the airliner that ditched into the Hudson River after colliding with geese last year.
Those include making aircraft engines more bird-resistant and equipping all passenger-carrying planes with life vests and rafts.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was just because of chance that US Airways Flight 1549 had such equipment on board on Jan. 15, 2009, when the Airbus A320 collided with a flock of Canada geese. Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger made a split-second decision to glide the airliner with 155 people aboard into the river rather than risk crashing in a densely populated area by trying to reach an airport.
The plane had just taken off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport and was bound for Charlotte, N.C. It was not required under Federal Aviation Administration regulations to have equipment for water landings on board. Only planes flying more than 50 miles from shore must have such equipment, the board said.
When the plane hit the water, there was a rupture in the fuselage near the tail and water gushed in. Everyone aboard survived, but it was a close call. Most passengers and crew wound up standing on the plane’s wings as it drifted downriver, gradually sinking along the way. Sixty-four passengers waited for rescue on slides that double as life rafts. Two other slides could not be deployed because they were in the rear of the plane, which was under water.
Ferries and rescue craft nearby were able to remove survivors quickly, but if the passengers had been forced into the 41-degree water, it’s possible many would have suffered “cold shock” — a phenomenon that can lead to drowning in as little as five minutes, the board said.
The board also recommended making life vests easier for passengers to retrieve and put on correctly.
The recommendations revive a long-dormant safety debate. The Federal Aviation Administration proposed in 1988 that all planes have life vests and flotation seat cushions regardless of route. However, the proposal was never finalized. It was withdrawn in 2003 because of cost concerns.
Another key recommendation was that FAA examine whether population increases in recent decades of large bird species have increased the likelihood of more collisions. In November, a Frontier Airlines flight en route to Denver hit a flock of snow geese, forcing the shutdown of one engine and significantly damaging the other. The plane returned to Kansas City for an emergency landing.
If there are more collisions with large birds, the board wants the FAA to revise its certification standards for aircraft engines to require they be able to withstand larger birds.