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N.Y. Jet Crash Catches Eye Of Tampa Rescue Planners

The Associated Press

Tampa Fire Rescue officials have discussed how Thursday's US Airways emergency can help local planners.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2009

Updated: 01/16/2009 03:07 pm

TAMPA - While most of the nation watched in awe as all 155 passengers and crew were plucked safely from a floating jetliner in the Hudson River on Thursday afternoon, officials with Tampa Fire Rescue observed with a critical eye.

They were assessing the remarkable rescue efforts they watched live on TV and figuring out how to apply them to local policies.

There are a lot of airports in the Tampa area, and there is a lot of open water. There is deep water, shallow water, waterways clogged with mangroves. And all around at any given time are boatloads of pleasure and commercial vessels.

Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade said planners are constantly tweaking the rescue policy.

"Rescue plans and emergency plans are living items and are constantly being looked at and reviewed," he said.

Wade said local rescue planners discussed how the New York emergency could result in a better plan in the Bay area.

"Any time there is a major event in the country, we watch the activities as they unfold in front of us," Wade said this morning. "Later, we read the reports. Reports tell us what might have made things go better."

A few lessons were there to be learned Thursday after the US Airways Airbus made an emergency water landing after a bird strike reportedly disabled both engines, Wade said.

"The first thing we saw was how quickly civilian craft got on scene; the ferries," he said. "They all were coordinated as part of the rescue effort. But when you have a large number of people in the water, the last thing you want to do is run people over. How do you coordinate those vessels and work with people operating them to make sure they become a help and not a hindrance?

"If an aircraft goes into Tampa Bay, vessels from at least a half-dozen rescue agencies would be sent immediately. But, on any given weekend, there are many pleasure craft in the area that may be useful in a water rescue effort as well."

A full-scale plan of coordination between rescue workers and private boaters doesn't exist.

Also, he said, many parts of Tampa Bay are shallow and not accessible by deep-hulled boats.

"That's why Tampa Fire Rescue has personal watercraft at the ready to get into those shallower areas and mangroves to help passengers and crew," Wade said.

The reassessment of Tampa's water-rescue policy is still in the early stages and may not result in changes, he said.

Meanwhile flight experts from across the nation are applauding the actions of the US Airways pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, who safely landed the airbus in the frigid Hudson River.

St. Petersburg resident and flight safety consultant John Cox also was amazed by the feat.

Cox, who founded Safety Operating Systems, a Washington, D.C.-based air safety consulting firm, told NBC News today that he has known Sullenberger for years and thought the landing was the best a pilot could do with two dead engines.

"He is a consummate professional," said Cox. "He will be absolutely recognized and applauded by all around for what he's done. He's written a page in history."

Cox said the apparent cause of the jet's problem, a flock of Canada geese that got sucked into the jet engines, is almost unavoidable. Screens can't be put over the jet engine intakes because that would alter and restrict the flow of air, he said.

Engines in commercial jetliners are certified to operate even when something flies into them, he said.

Engines are designed to take regular sized birds, he said, "but, at 200 mph, not birds the size of Canadian geese."

He hopes the crash landing will prompt government regulators to ratchet up specifications so that engines can resist birds of all sizes, he said, "to improve bird and foreign object tolerance in jet engines."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760.

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