“Hero on the Hudson”: Play it on Gadling!

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Maybe it’s too soon for this, but there’s already a popular online game inspired by the recent emergency landing on the Hudson River. “Hero on the Hudson” isn’t terribly sophisticated, but it gets the point across. You are in the left seat, acting as US Airways Flight 1549 pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger. Your plane is headed toward the Hudson River, and you need to take action.

This free game was put together by Orb Games Ltd. The company, which is based in Kiev, Ukraine, has been around since 2006 and is responsible for such popular (and viral) titles as “Duke Nukem Endangered Species,” “Star Wars Galaxies” and “Vivisector: Beast Inside.” Orb also developed games for Nintendo DS and Sony’s Playstation and PSP consoles.

According to company CEO Andriy Sharanevych, the “Hero on the Hudson” was created around a week and a half ago, only days after Sully brought his bird down west of Manhattan. Sharanevych claims that the miracle of the event is what prompted the game’s development: “We just wanted people to understand and not to forget that this is not for granted, so we tried to make a game that would remind everyone about this miraculous event.”

I know I’m a cynic, and I do wonder if this is just convenient admiration to mask just a bit of opportunism (which I really don’t fault anyway). Apparently, I’m not alone.

Find out what users think after the jump, and take your own shot at the landing!Sharanevych has received mixed feedback from users, many of whom have considered the game “heartless.” But, the CEO defends himself with the scripted monologue, “[W]e deliberately made it very simple to make a successful landing in the game, as this is the game about the miracle and not a tragedy. You can play a role of a pilot, who will save hundreds of lives behind him and bring joy, happiness and hope to millions of people.”

Stunt or salute, it’s definitely brought home results. “Hero on the Hudson was played more than 1.5 million times in the first week it was available. And, more traffic is expected.

Read the entire interview with Sharanevych here.

View our ongoing coverage of Flight 1549.

Ready to play? Click and hold with your mouse, then move it around to try to swing the plane into a safer landing position.

Play Games at AddictingGames

Sharks circling Hudson landing

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When US Airways ponied up $5,000 a passenger for the passengers of Flight 1549, most seemed skeptical. Commenter Bill opined, “I’m guessing those $5000 checks won’t stop any lawsuits.” A recent story in USA Today confirms this view. And, of course, lawyers have been contacted.

Joe Hart wants his bloody nose and bruises “made whole.” The salesman from Charlotte also says it’s too soon to know what emotional distress he has endured. So, while a hero is lauded, Hart is telegraphing his intentions.

According to US Airways, the $5,000 checks were for “immediate needs” that passengers may have and were not intended to mitigate the risk of litigation. Some say this isn’t enough. Gail Dunham, executive director of the National Air Disaster & Alliance Foundation, a safety advocate, remarks, “We’re grateful everyone survived, and the captain on the plane was so marvelous.” She notes, however, that passengers have lost important personal effects, such as briefcases, cell phones, BlackBerrys and business documents.

Oh, and they “and went through a terrific ordeal.”

The fact that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) may need the recovered personal items for several weeks or more in order to determine their weights does not seem to be a priority for Dunham. Safety, I guess, should take a back seat to remuneration.Several passengers, including Hart, claim that they had more than $5,000 in personal items on the plane. The fact that (a) the check is intended to be a stopgap measure and (b) that it is not intended to stem lawsuits does not seem to have entered into Hart’s thinking (or Dunham’s). Before passengers can be compensated fully, US Airways needs to know what’s been lost … which can’t happen until the NTSB has finished its safety-related exercise.

For some, future lives aren’t as important as adjusting payouts in excess of $5,000.

Even with the entire process beholden to the NTSB’s review, US Airways Vice President Jim Olson has noted that passengers are being contacted by an insurance claims specialist and that they will be reimbursed as necessary above the $5,000 threshold. Per the U.S. Department of Transportation, airlines are only liable for up to $3,300 per passenger for lost or damaged checked bags (on domestic flights). They tend to disclaim liability for carry-ons unless someone on the flight crew has a hand in stowing the bag.

Interestingly, anybody who has not suffered a financial loss of less than $5,000 probably won’t be asked for a refund. I love to pick on the airlines, but this seems downright reasonable!

Several passengers have reached out to Kreindler & Kreindler, a plaintiff firm that specializes in crashes. Attorneys from the firm are looking into the injuries and emotional distress sustained by passengers.

[Via USA Today, photo by jkrums via twitpic]

So how do we get that Airbus 320 out of the Hudson River?

by Aaron Hotfelder on

I assumed US Airways Flight 1549 would simply lie at the bottom of the Hudson River for the next 10,000 years, where it would become a home to all the fish (if there are any) that live in that river.

But apparently the plane was already fished out of the river back on January 17, which, judging from the pictures that I’ve just stumbled upon, was no small feat of engineering. How was it done?

It appears to have been lifted out of the water using heavy cables hanging from a massive crane, and it was placed on an even more massive barge. The plane was then moved to New Jersey for examination by accident investigators.

Check out all the amazing photos here.

US Airways check already in the mail

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Notoriety is now worth $5,000. US Airways sent checks for $5,000 to each passenger on Flight 1549 last week, better known as the plane that touched down on the Hudson River. The payment came with a letter, in which the airline claimed to be “truly sorry.” Passengers were also reimbursed for ticket costs.

This is a pretty refreshing move, especially following JetBlue’s refusal to recognize its shortcomings outside a courtroom.

According to US Airways, luggage from Flight 1549 may remain in the hands of investigators for several months, and some may be “unrecoverable.” Compensation for this inconvenience, the checks began to arrive yesterday. US Airways has stated that the checks are not intended to sidestep any claims or litigation that passengers may file.

The reason for the delay in returning recovered luggage, according to reporting by the NY Times, is that the items have to be weighed wet, dried for eight weeks and then weighed again. The purpose is to verify the weight and balance of the plane.

[Via NY Times]

Photo of the Day (1/15/09)

by Kent Wien on

From our Gadling group at Flickr comes this shot taken by olyman almost exactly where the USAirways flight 1549 ditched today. I’ve always wanted to kayak around Manhattan, and I probably would have discovered this picture eventually, but with the exciting news that everyone appears to have survived the ditching of the A320 in the Hudson River, I wondered if there was a picture in the Gadling group taken from a a similar vantage point.

Sure enough, this looks like it was taken around the same spot, albeit at a much warmer time of the year.

My hat’s off to the flight attendants and pilots of USAirways 1549.

Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!