Radar system being weighed in Boston helps avoid costly, dangerous airplane-bird collisions

BOSTON — Logan International Airport is testing a specialized radar system the Air Force uses to protect its fighters and NASA uses to guard its $2 billion shuttles, as it considers stepping up its efforts at preventing collisions between birds and airplanes.

Plane praised for remaining mostly in tact and afloat long enough for passengers to be rescued

WASHINGTON — When US Airways Flight 1549 splashed into the Hudson River in January, the fuselage ruptured, sending water gushing into the cabin. Passengers, some with water up to their necks, struggled to reach exits. There weren’t enough life rafts for everyone because two rafts in the rear of the plane were underwater.

Captain of plane downed in the Hudson says warnings about birds provide little help to pilots

WASHINGTON — Shortly after takeoff, the pilot of Flight 1549 remarked on two things almost immediately: a breathtaking view of the Hudson River and the sickening thump of birds hitting his engines. Warnings about the birds probably would not have helped, Capt. Chesley Sullenberger told federal safety officials Tuesday as they looked for ways to prevent a recurrence that could prove deadly.

Excerpts of cockpit, radio communications from US Airways flight 1549

Transcript released Tuesday of cockpit and radio communications from US Airways Flight 1549, which landed in the Hudson River on Jan. 15 after striking a flock of geese. The transcript was provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. (In the transcript Flight 1549 is sometimes mistakenly referred to as 1539 and 1529.)

Pilots were admiring Hudson River moments before they ditched their plane into the water

WASHINGTON — A passenger seated in the rear of US Airways Flight 1549 after the plane ditched into the Hudson River said Tuesday the water was rising so rapidly around him that he feared the plane was going to sink with passengers trapped inside.

Safety board probes issues arising from plane’s forced landing into Hudson River in January

WASHINGTON — The ability of aircraft engines to withstand collisions with large birds is a chief concern of federal safety investigators opening hearingsTuesday on the forced landing of a USAirways jet in the Hudson River.

Who opened the backdoor of plane in Hudson River ditching? Flight attendant, witnesses differ

WASHINGTON — Passengers on the plane that ditched into the Hudson River in January have told a federal safety panel that it was a flight attendant — not a panicked passenger — who opened a rear door on the aircraft, sending water rushing into the cabin.

`We may end up in Hudson’, said pilot before crashing

NEW YORK - Cockpit recordings of the ill-fated US Airways plane that crashed in the Hudson River last month reveal that the pilot calmly advised air traffic controllers, ‘We’re going to be in the Hudson’.

Plane was too low, too slow to reach airport: Hudson crash pilot

NEW YORK - In his first statement on the Airbus crash landing on the Hudson River, captain Chesley Sullenberger told investigators the plane was ‘too low, too slow’ to reach the next airport after its engines were hit by birds.