- Hi! I'm Marty Kelsey, from the National Air and Space Museum
in Washington, D.C. Today, I'm at
the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. I'm joined by Katie Swaringen.
Thank you so much for talking to us today. - Absolutely. - Tell us the story of this plane. - So the "Miracle on the Hudson" aircraft, the Airbus A-320 behind us, landed in the Hudson River
on January 15, 2009. It was destined for Charlotte,
North Carolina. That was interrupted when a flock of geese
actually flew into the aircraft, causing the, both engines
to fail and lose thrust. So, the crew had to land
on the Hudson River-- 155 people exited the plane,
were rescued, and everyone survived. So, great story! From there, the museum, we really got lucky in getting
the aircraft-- other museums were not able
to house it inside. It landed right in front
the Intrepid Museum, they were in the midst
of getting a shuttle at that time, so we felt like this was really its home. It was destined for Charlotte, most of the passengers were
local to the area, it was business travel. So we felt like it finally made
its way home to us. - Tell us about the raft here. What's its story in conjunction
with the airplane? - This is not the actual raft
that was used in the event, but it is exactly like the one was used. it was donated to us by US Airways,
which is now American Airlines. And we use it as an education tool
with our school groups, also with adults, with really anybody
that wants to climb inside of it to talk about aviation safety. So you get into the raft,
we talk about what happened that day, we talk about how the passengers exited
using the raft, let them put on a life vest,
read their safety card, and, you know, just realize
that you can really play a huge role in your own safety. I mean that a lot of,
when something does go wrong, which is rare,
but when it does, that you have a role to play. - And can we walk around
and see some of the rest of the plane? Alright, let's go. Katie, it looks like
there's something missing here. What's going on? - There is. So we're missing a large engine. As you know in this event, both engines were damaged
and lost thrust and were cause of the crash. So the National Transportation
and Safety Board had to do an extensive investigation
with both engines, which took quite a while. And in the process of that, while the engines were very damaged
during the event, they were completely disassembled
by the NTSB, just looking to see
what exactly happened and what were some recommendations
that they could make in the future to make travel even safer. So, this engine is still being reassembled by American Airlines volunteers
that help the museum out and it is in the process
of almost completely being restored and will eventually go on display. We do have the left engine on display. And the reason it has taken so long-- this happened in 2009,
we got the aircraft on 2011-- the engines have to stay
with the insurance company for three years afterwards
because of possible liabilities. So we didn't even get the engines
until 2013. But it's been quite the process
to put them back together because there's a lot of corrosion. There's, you know,
we've got volunteers working to try to make it as accurate
for a museum piece as possible using the original parts, but also making it safe enough
to put on display. - Awesome. Alright, well let's keep walking around. We've moved to the back of the plane.
What am I seeing here? - So, you're seeing some of the damage that was done in the actual landing. And so when the plane landed, Sullenberger knew that he needed
to land it at an 11 degree angle and straight, with the wings landing flat. Otherwise it was not going to be
a very successful landing and there would have probably
been fatalities. So the back of the plane took
the biggest impact, a very, very strong force. And because they had lost the thrust
in both engines, he wasn't really able to control fully
the speed that they were hitting. So they hit way too fast! And actually that sliding of our, going forward about 700 feet
after they hit. So anybody sitting in the back
of the aircraft had a very different experience than anyone sitting in the front
of the aircraft. And actually the flight attendant
in the back, Doreen Welsh, a part of the cargo beam came up
from the floor space and went into her leg,
almost severing an artery. She was one of the most severely injured
during the flight. But what you're looking at
is some of that damage and this piece actually
was still attached, so it would have been hanging down. And this is also where you'll find
the APU, the auxiliary power unit, which Sullenberger did flip on to have a little bit more energy
for those engines. - Okay, and you talked about
the flight attendant being injured. She kept doing her job, didn't she? - Oh yes, she did. Doreen is very honest
when she talks about this event. She knew that when Sullenberger
said "brace for impact," she knew they were crashing,
and she thought that she was going to die. But also her training just kicked in, and she was, you know,
telling the passengers to get down and to brace, brace. And the second they hit,
she's checking the doors, she sees that there's water, so the water is already flooding in. By the time that she got out, you know,
it is up to her neck. She is telling the passengers
to go forward, go forward, they've got to go out the wings,
they've got to go out the front! So she continued to do her job
till the very end. - And saved a whole
lot of people that day. - She did. - We've moved over in front
of the engine, and this engine
actually came off the plane, correct? - It did. So this engine was actually
in the Hudson River for eight days before it was recovered. - Now, tell me
what we're seeing here. - So, the cool thing about this engine is that they were able to put it together,
it's 95% original. So they only used parts
to provide stability in areas that are not visible. So everything that you see
that is visible, is original to the engine. You can definitely notice
the corrosion from the Hudson River, which we'll be battling
as we're trying to preserve it for the lifetime of this engine. Some interesting things to point out are how the fan blades are really,
they're pushed back because when the plane hit the water, the impact of the water
coming into the blades actually pushed those
titanium fan blades back. We also noticed the numbering
on the fan blades-- that's from the NTSB investigation,
as we talked about the other engines, these were completely disassembled
and had to be put back together by American Airlines volunteers. - Do they know how many
geese they hit that day? - They do. So two geese went into each engine, and they actually know
that it was three males and one female. And they know that
because of Carla Dove, who is a forensic ornithologist,
who works for the Smithsonian. And she did the investigation
for this accident and found-- she studied the bird remains. - And there's a word for that! - There is a word for that. It's called "snarge." She spends her days
studying snarge. - From here, you can also see
that there's some damage here at the front of the plane,
but that wasn't caused by the landing. - Right, so we really try to encompass
and tell an entire story of this event, from when the geese hit
from when they landed in the water, from the rescue efforts
and also from the recovery, and then its travels to the museum. So, we generally like to say below
the red line on the aircraft, is mostly from the emergency landing. A lot that you see above that
is really from the rescue, from the ferry boats
that ended up hitting it. A lot of the dents that you'll see
in the plane are from those rescue boats
actually bumping into the plane. Sullenberger is very clear
to point out that the cockpit windows were not damaged
when they landed. And we point that out as well
on our "Take a Closer Look" panels, that they were probably,
we're not totally sure, but probably hit by a ferry boat. Also the crane that pulled the plane out
of the water did some damage as well. And then of course the investigation-- they took the wings off,
actually sawed them off, so they're not really reattached
to the plane. They're about this far off. - But amazingly for a plane
that landed in the middle of a river, it's really intact! - It's very intact. It's in wonderful condition. And if you go inside,
the interior of the aircraft, it basically looks like any passenger
aircraft that you would get in. A couple of, you know,
a couple of things are askew and there's definitely some silt
from the Hudson River, but other than that it looks pretty good. - Wow, well thank you so much
for showing us around today.
