Will Review Ditching Safety, Bird Ingestion Standards

The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a public hearing on June 9-10, 2009, as part of its ongoing investigation into the ditching of a US Airways Airbus A320 into the Hudson River in New York City in January. The hearing will be held at the NTSB's Board Room and Conference Center in Washington, DC.

The purpose of the hearing will be to gather additional factual information for the investigation. It will be chaired by Member Robert M. Sumwalt who, along with Safety Board investigators, will hear from those the Board calls to testify on the following issues:

• Training of crew members on emergency procedures
• Certification requirements for the Airbus A320 related to the structural integrity of the airframe during ditching
• Bird ingestion certification standards for transport-category turbofan engines
• New and developing technologies for detection of large groups of birds and procedures to avoid conflicts with birds in the general vicinity of airports

A list of the individuals expected to testify will be released closer to the date of the hearing.

As ANN has reported extensively, there were no fatalities among the 155 passengers and crew onboard the plane, which ditched in the Hudson shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia on January 15 following an encounter with a large flock of geese.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.usairways.com