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: Structured Settlements 4Real

Tom Nomako No Sense on American Airlines 1256 LaGuardia Bird Strike

By John Darer

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Sorry to go off point here but I just can't shut up about Tom Nomako's shoddy reporting in Wednesday's New York Post about the above captioned incident that Nomako calls "similar to the one that force a US Airways plane to splash down in the Hudson in January".

I've compiled a comparison of the two incidents to show just how "similar"

US 1549 AA1256

Wikipedia Page Yes                                                       No
Pilot               International Hero "Sully"                         No details available
Aboard           155                                                        138
Aircraft           Airbus 320                                              Boeing 737
Birdstrike        On Climb Out                                         About to Land
Elevation         3,200 feet                                              900 feet
Fuel Tank        Full                                                       Pretty empty after 3 hours of flying
Fate               Controlled ditching                                 Landed safely
Damage           Both engines taken out                           Damaged landing gear
Injuries           5 serious, 73 minor                                None
Passenger
Awareness      100% aware, saying prayers                      Nobody aware
Smell              Barbecue                                             Salty peanuts
Culprit           Multiple Canada Geese                            A Seagull
Max weight     7-14lbs male 5.5-12 (female) each              4.2ox -3.8lbs

Notable quotes:

US 1549

"Got any ideas?"

" We're gonna be in the Hudson"

AA1256

"The passengers came off the plane and after coming inside the terminal...only then did they learn about the bird strike"

It's kind of frightening. When we landed I was kind of sleeping and jolted me" 16 year old passenger

"No one panicked," said Ariana Serpico, 26, who was aboard with her 2-year-old daughter. "We didn't even know what was going on."

Sources: New York Post, Daily News, Wikipedia

In conclusion

Thankfully nobody died in either incident.
As someone who has 30 or more years of experience with the often jolting "kerplunk" nature of landings at La Guardia I find myself a bit skeptical of the 16 year old's "story", as reported.
After The Post recently went into the sordid details of the Avian Gestapo "death squads" rounding up Canada Geese into cattle cars bound for the gas chambers at Goosewitz, Nomako notes that Canada Geese aren't flying around as much because they are molting (didn't he mean "molten"?)
The point is that "Nomako no sense" would "mako" much more sense if he simply reported the facts instead of trying to sensationalize a frickin' 3.8 lb bird to sell a newspaper.

Full post as published by Structured Settlements 4Real on July 02, 2009 (boomark / email).