The retired pilot who managed to land a plane with two failed engines on New York's Hudson River has a theory on why the recent tragic American Airlines crash happened.
Captain Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger was flying US Airways Flight 1549 on 15 January, 2009, when a bird strike caused two engines to fail shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
Miraculously, he was able to safely land the Airbus A320 on the Hudson River in one piece, saving all 155 passengers and crew on board.
What Captain Sully thinks of the tragic American Airlines crash
On Wednesday evening (29 January), 60 passengers and four crew members were travelling on American Airlines Flight 5432 when it crashed into a military helicopter carrying three soldiers. There were no survivors.
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"There would have been fewer ground lights visible over the water than over land at night," Captain Sully, now 74, told The New York Times.
"Nighttime always makes things different about seeing other aircraft — basically all you can do is see the lights on them.
"You have to try to figure out: Are they above you or below you? Or how far away? Or which direction are they headed? Everything is harder at night."
What happened with American Airlines Flight 5432 and the US Army helicopter?
The plane had departed from Wichita, Kansas, and was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C - an airport that requires additional training for pilots who operate from it due to its short runways and heavy traffic.
US Army helicopter Sikorsky H-60 - which had taken off from Fort Belvoir in Virginia - collided mid-air with the plane and the remains landed in the nearby Potomac River. At the time of writing, 41 bodies have been recovered from the water while 28 have been identified, as per Sky News.
"It seems apparent from the air traffic control communications that the airplanes were able to see each other, at least one was able to see the other," Sully added.
"The air traffic controller was able to relieve himself of the requirement to have him separate the airplanes, and the pilots would have to separate from each other visually by identifying the other aircraft and staying a safe distance away.
"Obviously at some point, separation was tragically lost."
'...On rare occasions, a catastrophic event'
He compared the incident to a row of dominoes being 'lined up the wrong way'.
"It's hard to have the diligence and the dedication to adhere to best practices on every minute of every hour of every day, every week, every month, every year for a decades long aviation career," the former pilot said.
"If all the dominoes line up in the wrong way, we could have on rare occasions a catastrophic event.
"Given enough time, given enough flights, given enough flight hours, eventually whatever can happen will happen unless we work very hard to prevent every incident from turning into an accident."
Topics: Travel, US News, American Airlines
Anish Vij