US AIRWAYS PLANE LANDS IN HUDSON RIVER
This afternoon, a US Airways plane downed in the Hudson River. Footage of the crash shows the plane partially submerged with passengers standing on the wings. The water temperature in the river was reported at 42 degrees.
Flight 1549, an A380 took off from Laguardia on it's way to Charlotte at 3:26 pm ET. 146 passengers and 5 crew members were onboard, MSNBC reports.
According to reports, the pilot reported a possible bird attack shortly after takeover. There were reports the pilot went into a flock of geese. In the aviation industry, these incidents are referred to as "wildlife strikes". For the period 1990—2004, over 63,000 wildlife strikes were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). About 97 percent of all wildlife strikes reported to the FAA involve birds, almost 3 percent involve mammals and less than 1 percent involved reptiles. Waterfowl (ducks and geese), gulls, and raptors (mainly hawks and vultures) are the bird species that cause the most damage to civil aircraft in the United States.
