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US 1549 ATC Audio

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It must throw the controller off a bit... handling a disabled inbound and continuing to provide vector/heading assignments to everyone else.

Very calm, decisive and concise communications by the crew. Textbook style Kudos.
 
Amish RakeFight said:
It must throw the controller off a bit... handling a disabled inbound and continuing to provide vector/heading assignments to everyone else.

Very calm, decisive and concise communications by the crew. Textbook style Kudos.
Click to expand...

Say what you will about the NY airports and system, I've always thought their controllers are better by a large margin than anywhere else at getting the job done when things get a little nuts.
 
It's interesting they use the term "Re-recording". I thought it was going to be a re-enactment type thing but it is the actual recording.
 
I think they owe this controller tickets to the next Superbowl since I am guessing he didn't get to go to this one.
Well done NY.
 
Maybe I'm reading too much into this but I heard the controller's demeanor change significantly when he lost contact. It was as if I could hear him saying to himself, "A plane I was controlling went down with a lot of lives." I wish I could have a recording of him when he got the news that they were all safe.
 
Anyone catch where the controller is trying to give 1549 LGA runway options for the third time and during the first seconds of mike being keyed you hear someone in the flight deck say: "Idiot......"
 
BFE said:
Anyone catch where the controller is trying to give 1549 LGA runway options for the third time and during the first seconds of mike being keyed you hear someone in the flight deck say: "Idiot......"
Click to expand...

Now that you mention it, I did hear that...wonder if that was from the controller landline talking to someone else?
 
Isn't there some sort of Airmanship of the Year award? I think we have a winner for that one.

It's nice to be able to be proud of those in our profession. This crew is a reminder of how important it is to have pros in the cockpit.

Who was on the radio, btw?
 
BFE said:
Anyone catch where the controller is trying to give 1549 LGA runway options for the third time and during the first seconds of mike being keyed you hear someone in the flight deck say: "Idiot......"
Click to expand...


I heard that too..sounded like it was the FO exclaiming that after one of the repeated offers of coming back to LGA even after he was told "unable."
 
It was Sully on the radio... he was PM on intial contact, then kept the radios while the FO was running the QRH and he flew.
 
I guess my take on the controller's actions is a little more critical.

Was anyone else a little surprised that he didn't clear him to land on any runway and give them the current winds? I don't think the controller grasped how critical the situation was until the end because he kept offering them runways requiring downwind legs even after they said they were unable to make 13 at LGA. It didn't really make a difference in the outcome, but it added more communication confusion at the most critical point.

And, when an aircraft that reports losing thrust in both engines asks about an airport in NJ, wouldn't it have made sense to tell him the distance and bearing to that airport? At least, that's what I've seen in other transcripts where a controller had to point an aircraft to the nearest piece of asphalt for an emergency landing.

Finally, check the transcript at 2029:28 where Sully says, "we're gonna be in the Hudson." The controller responds, "I'm sorry, say again Cactus," then gives a frequency change to Jetlink without waiting for a response. That was his last opportunity to figure out that they were going into the water.
 
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how can a radar controller give a landing clearance off the bat like that. he has no clue if there's another plane slugging down the runway...

call me naive, but I always thought that was the job of the local controller up the tower cab.
 
BFE said:
Anyone catch where the controller is trying to give 1549 LGA runway options for the third time and during the first seconds of mike being keyed you hear someone in the flight deck say: "Idiot......"
Click to expand...

It's another controller saying either "Eighty Echo" or "Eighty-Eight Echo." That's all.
 
Tape has been edited.

"...couldn't get it for you." Couldn't get what?

Sounds like he wanted to go straight back into path of departures and they turned him down forcing them into the Hudson.

Let us hear the whole tape! Unedited!

100-1/2
 
100-1/2 said:
Tape has been edited.

"...couldn't get it for you." Couldn't get what?

Sounds like he wanted to go straight back into path of departures and they turned him down forcing them into the Hudson.

Let us hear the whole tape! Unedited!

100-1/2
Click to expand...

He doesn't say that. The controller says, "if we can get it to you, do you want to try to land runway one-three"

http://www.faa.gov/data_statistics/accident_incident/1549/media/Full Transcript L116.pdf

transcript..unless I missed something
 
All of the tapes are certified by the QC/PC people at the beginning of the "re-Recording". That certification states the range of the recording covered. Several of the tapes' total recording is less than the stated amount in the certification by as much as 90 seconds and there are about 5 minutes of radar track while only about 3 minutes of Communications are provided when you sync the tapes' timestamps to the transcript.

You can say anything you want in a transcript and make the audio recordings match with a re-recording.

Also,

"COULD-ENT.....get it for you"

"IF-WE-CAN.....get it for you"



HOOK - ED PU-HON-ICS WORK - ED FOR ME.

Same concept.

If he did suggest "if we could" where is the tape of him trying?

100-1/2
 
PeanuckleCRJ said:
It was Sully on the radio... he was PM on intial contact, then kept the radios while the FO was running the QRH and he flew.
Click to expand...

It's a shame the radio transmissions don't tell the whole story. Sully was also doing the Cabin Preparedness demo, overseeing the running of the QRH, adding a creamer to his coffee, doing the sudoku puzzle in the USAToday's Life section, sweeping the dust off the radios with a paintbrush he keeps in his flightbag, making a grocery list in his head, creating waypoints for a home made "Sully.1" in the FMS so it he could "Manage" the aircraft's lateral and vertical decent into the Hudson, and evidently he was flying. I've only recently heard there might have been other USAir employees on the aircraft. I'm trying to find more information on this.
 
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Let's face it, the media has grabbed hold of this one and made one man the hero. Realistically, there 4 other heros on the plane, a bunch others in ferries and some dead birds. The Captain has given credit to all those involved, but the media prefers to focus on him. The media is comprised of a bunch of morons...I don't think you'd want to blame that on the captain would you?
 
AKAAB said:
I guess my take on the controller's actions is a little more critical.
Click to expand...

If you are going to be critical, when did the aircrew declare an emergency? On the recording I listen to, I never heard the aircrew say the magic words "mayday" or "emergency". They only requested a return to the airport. It was the controller who was the first to use the term emergency.
 
KigAir said:
If you are going to be critical, when did the aircrew declare an emergency?
Click to expand...

When the pilot of a twin-engine aircraft says that he's lost thrust from both, that could be considered an implicit declaration of an emergency. When the pilot of an airplane multi-engine land reports that he'll be landing on water, that would also be a hint to the controller.
 
I will admit that I can be critical of controllers. It's the back and fourth controllers and pilots do in our healthy rivalry. That being said, I feel this controller did a great job of dealing with this aircraft while continuing to work aircraft in his sector at the same time. Remember, he is a radar controller working a departure corridor where he is turning/climbing/and handing off jets in the most stressful work environment the FAA has save EWR/ORD//LGA ground in the evening.. I think he did an excellent job of transitioning from a departure controller with fixes/airways up on his screen to a makeshift arrival sector/tower controller giving a distressed aircraft runway options at 2 and almost 3 airports. I think that as the tape continued, the controller wanted to be on tape as having offered as many options as possible to the crew. He just about offerred every runway in the area to the flight in question.
I can't stand the delays we get in the NYC area on departure on clear days. I don't want to understand the issues these guys are dealing with both in traffic and staffing. It is frustrating. But everytime there has been an abnormal at LGA or EWR that I have witnessed on the radio both in the air or on the ground; the real "controller" seems to come out in these guys who I truly believe are the best of the best. I've heard a EWR Tower controller issue instructions to 3 airborn aircraft so quickly to avoid a PIA 747 from causing some real "noise issues" as it almost ran down an MD-80 and a 737. There is no place on earth I'd rather have an emergency then in the NYC Tracon area. Just wish these guys would chose to use their A-game everyday... Maybe we could move some aircraft in and out of the area a lot more quickly.

IAHERJ
 
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Sully for President in 2012!!!! Seriously, that guy is my hero. Nerves of STEEL..... I like that the FO actually gets his picture on TV too (it's about time)...

I'll be watching Sully on 60 Minutes this Sunday and on Larry King Monday night at 9PM EST. It's a great story...
 
Who cares if he didn't "declare an emergency". In the situation he was in, the people on the ground can't do anything for you anyway. And it isn't like landing an Airbus in the Hudson is gonna go unnoticed without rescue help on the way.
 

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