The one year anniversary of Flight 1549 reminds us of the remarkable landing with both a Sully book tour and a survivor reunion at the crash site. Not much has been written about the actually NTSB accident investigation–it seems damage from the birds was confirmed in both engines:
Federal safety officials said today they’ve confirmed there were birds in both engines of the US Airways plane that ditched into New York’s Hudson River last month. The National Transportation Safety Board said remains from both engines have also been sent to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to have the bird species identified.
And what about those bird species? Turns out they were geese:
The identification was made by the bird lab at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, by microscopic analysis of feathers found inside the engines and DNA tests on bird tissue also found there. The engines are being taken apart at an engine factory in Cincinnati.
Exosphere3D, a Denver based animation firm, created this accident reconstruction of US Airways Flight 1549. From the Exosphere3D website:
This animation is based on all currently available data concerning the US Airways Flight 1549 crash (Cactus 1549). Satellite imagery, elevation models and robust GIS mapping methods are utilized to create a vegetation model, terrain model and ground clutter (3D buildings). Of all available audio tracks, only two are used, La Guardia Tower and New York TRACON Departure controller position. Radar data as well as the onboard Flight Data Recorder are utilized in constructing the flightpath of the aircraft.
Tags: Flight 1549, NTSB, Plane Crash, Smithsonian, Sully
