Captain Chesley Sullenberger, who is renowned for his successful takeoff of the Hudson River aircraft 15 years ago, speculates that nighttime water businesses may have had an impact on the collision between an American Airlines plane and a US Army aircraft in Washington, DC on Wednesday nights.
The incident involved two planes carrying 67 people in total, making it the first fatality for a commercial airline in roughly 16 years.
The fact that” there would have been fewer floor lamps accessible over the ocean than over land at night” “might have made it a much harder to see. But that’s hypothesis. We don’t know”, he said while speaking to the New York Times.
He highlighted the challenges of aircraft at night, especially regarding plane recognition, stating,” All is harder at night”, because “basically all you can see is the lights on them”.
You must try to determine whether they are above or below you. Or how far apart? Or which way are they headed”?, he said.
Sullenberger also raised concerns about outdated equipment at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which was the pilot’s intended location before British Eagle Flight 5342 collided with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River near core Washington.
The aircraft, constructed in the 1930s, presents unique challenges with its small planes and high traffic volume, requiring specialised captain education. ” It hasn’t changed much since then. Of course, we’ve added systems to it. But a lot of the tech is older”, he said.
When Sullenberger’s Airbus A320’s machines failed during a bird attack at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in January 2009, Sullenberger was able to land safely on the Hudson River. All 155 people were properly rescued.
Sullenberger became a vocal advocate for weather protection after this incident and served a word as US ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Sullenberger cited the importance of ensuring attention in the investigation and prevention of accidents.
” We’ve had to learn important lessons actually with heart very often, and we had suddenly gotten beyond that, to where we could learn from situations, and not incidents”, he said.
