It was those damned geese!
A feather from a bird and “organic material” has been found on the engine, wings and fuselage of the US Airways airliner that crash-landed in the Hudson River, federal authorities said yesterday.
Investigators also have found that fan blades in the Airbus A320’s right engine “revealed evidence of soft-body impact damage.”
OPINION: THE GOOSE MENACE: DON’T TRUST THE PA
The new bird-related evidence strongly backs initial claims that a collision with a flock of Canada geese knocked out power in Flight 1549’s two engines before hero pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger pulled off the miraculous river ditching last Thursday afternoon.
Most of the plane – except for the dislodged left engine – was pulled from the Hudson last week and shipped by barge to Jersey City, NJ, where it is being examined by National Transportation Safety Board investigators.
“What appears to be organic material was found in the right engine and on the wings and fuselage,” said the NTSB in a press release. Samples of that material have been sent to the US Agriculture Department for DNA analysis.
“A single feather was found attached to a flap track on the wing,” said the release, adding that the feather “is being sent to bird-identification experts” at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Probers said “evidence of soft-body impact damage” to the right engine included three fractured variable-guide vanes, two missing vanes, a missing electronic-control unit and damage to numerous internal components. The vanes guide air flow through the engine.
Sullenberger radioed air-traffic controllers that his Charlotte, NC-bound aircraft suffered a double-bird hit that took out both engines less than a minute after taking off from La Guardia Airport. He landed in the Hudson, where all 155 people aboard were rescued.
The incident has brought to light the fact that birds routinely collide with planes, although collisions only rarely lead to crashes.
The NTSB also said yesterday that after a flight two days before the miraculous landing, the plane’s right engine had a temperature probe replaced after an in-flight “surge.”
Meanwhile, police divers pinpointed the plane’s missing left engine at the bottom of the Hudson 60 feet down.
Divers cited safety concerns in deciding not to try to raise the engine using inflatable devices, said NTSB lead investigator Bob Benzon. The NTSB then began negotiating with a private contractor to recover the engine as early as today.
Sullenberger is set to be honored Saturday with an official celebration in his hometown of Danville, Calif., according to the mayor.
Additional reporting by Emmett Berg in Danville, Calif.