FAA has posted audio and ATC transcripts from Hudson River landing

[dave]

ABC News Story

Audio Files and Transcripts

[sunburn]

Ohh, I threw this in the audio clips section too.

[dave]

No problem

[KSYR-pjr]

I just read through the transcripts of the NY center that briefly handled the Cactus emergency aircraft.  What struck me was how quickly the controller had to sort out the large volume of traffic that had temporarily been moved around for the emergency as well as all of the new traffic.

Handling all of that volume while just experiencing the loss and unknown fate of one of the aircraft under his control must have been incredibly stressful.   Good controllers are superb multitaskers and amazing individuals to be able to continue working with that potential distraction right there.  How the FAA does not recognize and reward this ability just goes to show how inept their management philosophy really is.

[anand]

Why do they interchange 1549 and 1529 in the conversation ? Which one is the real flight# ?

[jmcmanna]

A radar controller can talk to well over 100 airplanes in a single 8 hour shift, and an airline pilot flies under several different flight numbers throughout the day.  It's easy to stumble over a couple of numbers.  Add that to the stress of the emergency, and a tiny mistake was made.

At least 50% of the time, if I call an airline pilot by the wrong flight number (like, I say Flagship 2199, but the call sign is actually Flagship 2149), he will respond with the incorrect call sign transmission.  It's a silly mistake to make, especially since I am either reading the call sign off a radar scope, or looking at a flight strip, but a pilot isn't staring at his flight number and might have had 4 other flight numbers that day.  No big deal.

The correct call sign was AWE1549.

[athaker]

Also listening to the coordinator whilst the emergency was occurring and in the aftermath (PD helicopters screaming to the site, runway checks, using kennedy to find a PD chopper, holding departures and arrivals for a decent amount of time, updating kennedy, teterboro, newark, port authority, PD etc etc etc)....I was in awe.

For example, it can't be easy to hold arrivals to LGA on a weekday afternoon on short notice. Or to manage multiple helicopters converging on each other...Or then quickly switch to the expressway approach.

I'm not a controller (not even close), so listening to how quickly they managed to get everything done, knowing that a plane went down, and making it seem routine, even if it was procedural -> damn impressive.

Few professions demand such a high reserve in human capacity for achievement.  After years in EMS I can relate to the variations in stress of ATC.  Things here went from routine to potentially disastrous in seconds, and the cascade of action by the controllers, and responders, and of course the pilots, made sure everything that needed to be done got done, very quickly. 

Few individuals could have made this whole event sound procedural, but you controllers, especially in the NY area, continually show that responding to disaster and rising to the occasion are well within your capacity.

[glencar]

Thank you.

[keith]

I was floored between the amount of time that passed between the aircraft reporting the problem and the departure controller hopping on the line with tower to hold subsequent departures....it seemed like it was instantaneous.  Similarly, the call to Teterboro was made with lightning speed.  The level of confidence and competency was awesome to behold. 

Credit, too, to the tower controllers, who had virtually no time to process what had happened, and simply said "ok", or "that'll work", without being flustered, or asking unnecessary questions.  This indicates that it wasn't just a fluke that the departure controller was on top of his game....the other controllers were rockstars, too.

It's also worth mentioning that the dep controller continued to work other traffic at the same time, doing a great job of splitting his attention between the aircraft in distress, the comms with other facilities, and working existing traffic.  Inspirational stuff.

[glencar]

That guy in particular used to work EWR traffic so he had a good knowledge of TEB. That helped although it turned out to be unnecessary.

[Jason]

I would definitely like to echo Keith's comments.  This is how the most calm and professional controllers handle themselves.  It's a great privilege to work with the controllers at N90 from the other end, and I greatly appreciate the work they do.  It does not go unnoticed.  Fortunately, due recognition was received through this successful incident.  Bravo Zulu.  Keep up the great work, and thank you.