U.S. Air Ditching was NOT the First
Posted By John Moore on January 16, 2009
The media and blogs are reporting that yesterday’s US Air ditching of an airliner in the Hudson River was the first successful ditching of an airliner.
This simply is not true.
In 1968, a JAL DC-9 with over 100 passengers ditched in San Francisco Bay. In that case, there were zero injuries (unlike yesterday’s).
None of this is to detract from the remarkable job “Sully” did yesterday. Unlike the JAL pilot, Sully ditched on purpose. The JAL pilot accidently flew into the water.
Coincidentally, the next day in a Navy P-3, I flew over the JAL aircraft, sitting nicely in the water (not floating – the wheels were on the bottom of the bay).
I certainly do not wish to diminish the actions of Capt. Sullenberger (although it would be nice to identify his ACTUAL USAirways history…I’d lay odds that he didn’t start his career with Allegheny!) To set the record straight, this is not the only successful ditching of a commercial airliner. “Sully” did a superb job, although he was certainly not the first; every media outlet using pundits have an agenda and give inaccurate information. Fact check: On Oct. 29, 1956, Pan American Flight 943 enroute Honolulu to San Francisco ditched IN THE OPEN PACIFIC OCEAN with no loss of life. Fact 2: The aircraft involved was a Boeing B-377 Stratocruiser (far larger and heavier than the Airbus A320). Fact 3: The Pan Am incident was so heroic that the new airport in Kahiluli, Maui was given the airport code of OGG after the Capt.(Ogg) of the Pan Am Flight 943.
It was actually a DC-8-62, but you are correct and of course the Liberal media gets it wrong…again
Phil, you are incorrect. I had the good fortune to fly with Capt Ogg after he retired from Pan Am and was flying part time for Johnson’s Flying Service in Missoula. I only flew one trip with him but you can believe me I pciked his brain on the dithching incident. He was very modest about it all…..And it was a Strtaocruiser. In his words “no one even got their feet wet”.. They ditched close to a freighter