BREAKING NEWS ... U.S Airways plane in Hudson River

[mike_s]

I bet they'll find it for the investigation.
when did the engine break away? during landing/impact or beforehand?


In a releated though, when I lived in LA, on the news one night a 747 taking off out of LAX lost an engine.... when I say lost, I mean it came off the wing pylon mount.

can you imagine sitting out in a boat fishing and seeing and engine flying off a plane?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Anyone want to go look for that missing engine? Maybe the DIR guys can help out here...the water seems pretty black

DIR doesn't train you in search and recovery ... that's a whole 'nother discipline.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ReefHound]

My guess is the plane will only be good for a few parts, after the investigation. Looked like luggage floating in some of the shots. Maybe some treasure diving in the Hudson?

 

[Gary D.]

There should be a lot of good useful parts but it will never fly again. The same goes for flooded cars. Once flooded they should be parted out. Even if this was a brand new plane it would be cheaper to replace it than try and replace everything but the outer hull and try and get it re-certified. Even rebuilt it has been through a tremendous amount of stress and I don't think anyone knows for sure how much that shortened its life.

The bottom line is the plane can be replaced but all onboard came out safe.

Gary D.

 

[mike_s]

I agree about flooded cars Gary, but often flooded cars are "dried out" and re-titled and re-sold, often w/o disclosure to the buyer.

some states still allow a car to be re-titled w/o putting on the title that the car was totaled.

I've never used CarFax before, but hopefully they can help protect buyers with letting them know in cases like this on a used car purchase.

 

[Ed L.]

Any idea what the water temp is? Is the Hudson as polluted as the East River?

 

[ReefHound]

Not to mention that even if the plane could be refurbished, it would be a liability nightmare. Can you imagine if they returned it to service and a few years later it was involved in a catastrophic crash with much more tragic results?

I recall seeing one official saying water temp was 36 degrees and survival time in the water was a matter of minutes not hours.

 

[mike_s]

NOAA says the water Temp at Battery NY has been 39f to 41f over the past couple days

NOAA Station BATN6 - 8518750 - The Battery, NY
NDBC - Station BATN6


As for the plane, they refurb planes that do runway belly landings and have tons of damage. I'm just saying that it might be possible they refurb this one. maybe not for passenger flight but maybe for cargo operations or sell it to another country that doesn't have a tough of rules as the US.

regardless, at least some of the parts from that plane will be salvaged and installed on other aircraft. That plane cost about $60 million. I can guarentee you that some of the value of that plane will be recooperated. Maybe not by US Air, but by the salvage company hired by the insurance company.

 

[F106A]

I'd guess it would be a long shot to find a Certificated Repair Station that would return any of these "salvaged" parts to service, even if it was legal. But I'm not an expert on the subject.

 

[Gary D.]

They sell and use used aircraft parts all the time just like cars and trucks do. There is a major difference between a dry crash and a flooding. They can return a dry crashed plane to service much easier just like a dry motor vehicle crash. But in a flooding every inch of wiring, all the electronics the insulation and a plethora of other stuff has to be replaced. When wire is submerged the water wicks into it. Maybe a little maybe a lot but someday that water is going to cause a problem. It can and usually is a nightmare with motor vehicles and it would be the same for a plane.

There is a lot of salvage from the plane but I would bet it will never take to the air again. The liability for anyone who took it aloft would be unreal including who ever sold it for anything other than scrap.

Thank god everyone is safe. Now lets hope and pray for a safe recovery of the plane and the engines.

Gary D.