Airline accidents are very rear and fatal accidents even more so. In 2010 the Polish President and many top public figures died when their jet crashed en route to a war memorial service in Russia. This was one of the more notable crashes in recent time, along with the Concorde crash in 2000 in Paris. In both these accidents there were no survivors and there is nothing that the cabin crew could have done to avert disaster. Cabin crew were, however, able to play an important part in an incident involving US Airways flight 1549 in February 2009. You are going to read a newspaper article about this incident.
«Unbelievable, but true….
US Airways Flight 1549 lost both engines following a massive bird-strike three and a half minutes after take-off and made an emergency landing in the Hudson River yesterday in the afternoon. There were 150 passengers and five crew members, including the captain, first officer and three flight attendants on board. All 155 survived.
The plane ditched exactly at 15.31, less then 7 minutes after take-off. Four minutes later all the passengers and crew had been evacuated on to the wings of the floating aircraft or onto the slightly inflated slides. They were taken to safety to Hudson River ferries. Before leaving the aircraft himself, the captain made one last check inside to see that no one was left behind. There were no serious injuries.
Many are calling this a miracle. However, aviation authorities are saying that the real reason for the success of the landing and evacuation was the first class training of the pilot and cabin crew. They knew what to do and did it superbly.»