Interesting fact. The reason the US Airways plane stayed afloat in the river for so long is partly because the Airbus A320 is equipped with a “ditch switch”. The ditch switch is a button in the cockpit that when activated, seals all ports and openings on the lower fuselage, so that once the aircraft enters the water, it doesn’t take on water as quickly as it would normally (via vents, drains, etc). I think that’s pretty cool. [Link]
Picture from [Here]
14 replies on “Ditch Switch”
“ditch switch” hmm !
you learn something new everyday 😛
its kinda neccessary since those air filled slides dont work under water
The picture is fucking surreal! Imagine, this is how you start your day!
It was an amazing end result… Shows what doing things properly can achieve.
ok but why its not switched on all the time?
because the ditch switch closes all the ventilation ports, which is not good unless you want to die of CO2 poisoning
Video of the crash at the following 2 links:
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f9d_1232215032
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=9e6_1232166872
Plus a longer (10 minute) one of the plane being lifted out of the Hudson:
https://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1f9_1232264086
At least one report I read said the pilots forgot to hit the “ditch switch” before splashdown – they were still working on restarting the engines. We’ll know more in a few day, I guess.
Solomon2 – I read the same thing on Yahoo news that the pilots forgot to activate the “Ditch switch”
The “Ditch Switch” is located on the overhead panel Captain side.
But in this case it was bit different as they were to low (3000ft) to do all the necessary procedures. The Captain managed to glide the plane and land in River Hudson in 3:30secs. While F/O was trying to restart the engines.
But I am still confused with one thing. If one engine struck with geese and lost power how did 2nd Engine went off?
well they still haven’t gotten the final report yet but i read that both engines got hit with geese.
Not geese… Al Qaeda’s Pigeons.
And yes, I just read this morning that they forgot to hit the ditch switch.
LOL@ Al Qaeda’s pigeons!!!
Yes the pilot didn’t actually press that switch, but he was clever enough to land near where the ferrys’ tunnel then the ferrys hurried to rescure the passengers.
-Gus
coooooooooooooooooooool!!