On Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:21:41 -0500, wrote:


He needs to trade, very carefully, altitude for speed vs distance.

And related to that, he had to choose where on Hudson to land. From
the GW Bridge to Battery Park is about 11 miles. He chose to land
where the ferries were, so there would be boats to rescue them.

The ferries go, I think, to Hoboken, NJ, which is newly popular to
live for NYC workers, and I think there are a lot of commuter trains
there too. I don't know about parking.

Before the Holland Tunnel, around 1920?, there was nothing but ferries
and boats to get across the river. When my grandmother landed at
Ellis Island, I don't think she even got to NYC at all. There was a
paid or volunteer social worker to put her on the right ferry, from
Ellis Island straight to Hoboken, and another such social worker to
put her on the right train. She was going to Indiana. My grandmother
was embarrassed that she knew almost no English, and was shipped "like
a bundle", with an address label pinned to her sweater, that the
social worker would look at and point her in the right direction.

The fact he was able to get the right combination speaks volumes about
the man's flying knowlege . Apparently he was just above stall when he
dragged the tail in (nose high, likely on full flaps, or very close) -
and dragging the tail reduced the speed to below stall which allowed
the plane to pancake in virtually level at a low enough speed that it
just tore one engine off it's pilon without significantly turning or
flipping the plane.