NYC investigators hunt for jet's lost engines

[January 17, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Divers and sonar operators hunted for two missing engines from a US Airways jetliner in challenging, nearly impossible conditions as investigators made plans to carefully hoist the damaged plane from the water to retrieve the flight and data recorders.

The engines, lost when Flight 1549 splashed down after colliding with birds, were presumed to have been carried somewhere cold, dark and murky by the river's strong tides.

Exactly where, though, was a mystery. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessels and city police department boats were to resume the search Saturday, probing the sediment of the river bottom along a 4 1/2 mile stretch from the point of impact to the southern tip of Manhattan.

Investigators also planned to conduct their first interview Saturday with the pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, who glided the crippled aircraft into the river when he couldn't make a nearby airport, saving the lives of all 155 people aboard.

Authorities want to closely inspect the engines to figure out how exactly the birds caused the plane to fail so badly and so fast. They may also examine any feathers remaining in the engine to determine the type of bird species, helping prevent future mishaps.

Thick mud, swift tides and bone-chilling temperatures stymied investigators Friday as the probe began. The current was especially strong Friday, making it impossible for crews to life the aircraft out of the water.

Authorities said they planned to extract the aircraft Saturday with a pair of big cranes and put it on a barge.

Experts said the wrecked engines could be far tougher to recover.

They could be 30 to 50 feet down, obscured by the thick sediment. Conditions are so murky that police and fire department divers will have to feel about by hand.

"There is hardly anything to see because of the sediment," said Thomas M. Creamer, chief of the operations division of the New York District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, one of the groups brought in to help with the search.

Two Army Corps survey boats began searching for the engines on Friday, one working south from the crash site, the other heading north from lower Manhattan.

Under the direction of the police department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration used sonar to look for the engines. That technology can produce a picture of the river bottom, but its range is limited.

"It is going to take time," Creamer said. "It is a large area. Things move around quickly."

Meanwhile, the pilot's status as a national hero rose by the hour as he took a congratulatory call from the president, earned effusive praise from passengers on the plane and become the subject of a growing global fan club.

Sullenberger was in good spirits and showing no outward signs of stress from the ordeal, a pilots union official said.

The engines are a main focus of the probe.

The type of engine on the Airbus 320 is designed to withstand a 4-pound bird strike, said Jamie Jewell, a spokeswoman for CFM International of Cincinnati, which manufactures the engines. That's fairly typical for commercial airliners and their engines, although larger Canada geese can exceed 12 pounds.

Kitty Higgins, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board, also suggested that part of the investigation will be to "celebrate what worked here," something of a rarity for an agency that focuses on figuring out what went wrong in a disaster.

"A lot of things went right yesterday, including the way that not only the crew functioned, but the way the plane functioned."

The investigation began as new details emerged about why the pilot chose to land the plane in the river - and not at two nearby airports. The pilot twice told air controllers that he was unable to make the proper turn after reporting a "double bird strike."

The tower believed Sullenberger meant that both his jet engines had been damaged by bird impacts.

The accident also raised questions about whether airports around the country are doing enough to deal with bird flocks.

The agency that operates New York City's major airports said it has a multimillion-dollar program to chase birds off its property, but can only do so much to protect planes once they are in the air.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said it kills thousands of birds every year in the marshy waterways and tidal flats that surround its two major airports in Queens, and uses guns, pyrotechnics and hawks to drive away birds.

Among the other tactics: Bird eggs are coated in oil to prevent them from hatching. Nests are removed. The agency also plays recordings of bird distress calls, and landscapers remove shrubs and trees that might be attractive to certain species.

Sometimes aircraft have to take evasive action to avoid a flock of geese. Other times, it's too late and they can only hope for the best.

One Boeing 737 pilot writing about a strike in a safety report described the smell of burnt feathers and seabird after a gull was sucked into his rear engine during a landing at LaGuardia in 2004.

If an engine takes in a large bird - or several birds at once - fan blades may break, causing an imbalance in the engine's rotation and severe vibrations, said Kevin Poormon, who tests the ability of aircraft engines to withstand bird strikes. Those vibrations conceivably could be strong enough to cause the engine to come loose from its mounting, Poormon said.

Passengers heaped more praise on Sullenberger, co-pilot Jeff Skiles and their crew for their handling of the landing and evacuation.

"My thanks goes out to the pilot - for his quick reaction and putting us down like he did," said Shae Childers, 38, of Gaffney, S.C., who was recovering from hypothermia Friday at a New York hospital. "There could not have been a better scenario to this disaster. It could have been much worse. God really had to be with him as well."

David Sanderson, 47, of Charlotte, N.C., said the fact that they survived the landing was a testament to Sullenberger's training. "He is a true professional," he said. "He wasn't screaming. He maintained calm and control the whole time."

Sullenberger's wife, in an interview outside their California home, called him "a pilot's pilot" and said talk of him being a national hero was "a little weird."

At a City Hall ceremony Friday to honor those who came to the aid of the stranded passengers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sullenberger's actions "inspired people around the city, and millions more around the world."

The NTSB is working with the FBI and the city to obtain video evidence recorded by city residents. The Coast Guard is trying to ensure that fuel still in the aircraft is contained, if possible.

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Associated Press writers Adam Goldman, Colleen Long and Samantha Gross in New York, Michael J. Sniffen and Joan Lowy in Washington, Mitch Weiss in Charlotte, N.C., and Mike Baker in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

[Associated Press; By DAVID B. CARUSO]

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