Airbus ditching Investigation suggests bird strike
The USA’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has located both engines of the US Airways Airbus A320 that ditched in New York’s Hudson River on January 15, and has already identified “soft body impact damage” in one engine indicating bird strike as the prime suspect.
An examination of the engine’s first stage fan blades revealed that three of the variable guide vanes are fractured and two are missing. “The engine’s electronic control unit is missing and numerous internal components of the engine were significantly damaged,” says the NTSB:
“What appears to be organic material was found in the right engine and on the wings and fuselage. Samples of the material have been provided to the United States Department of Agriculture for a complete DNA analysis. A single feather was found attached to a flap track on the wing. It is being sent to bird identification experts at the Smithsonian.
“The left engine has been located in about 50 feet of water near the area of the Hudson River where the aircraft ditched. The NTSB is working with federal, state and local agencies to recover the engine, which is expected to occur sometime on Thursday.”
The NTSB has also found that the right engine experienced a surge during a flight on January 13, 2009, and that subsequent maintenance actions had included the replacement of a temperature probe. Investigators from the NTSB’s maintenance records group are also researching this report.
As is standard procedure in such events where there are survivors, the NTSB’s survival factors group is interviewing passengers to learn more about the events surrounding the ditching and the successful emergency evacuation and rescue. The operations and human performance group is interviewing US Airways flight operations training personnel, and both checked and carry-on baggage is now being removed from the aircraft for return to the passengers.
On-scene documentation of the aircraft is expected to be completed by the end of the week, after which it will be moved to more permanent storage for later and more detailed documentation of the damage.
