I've heard the same thing. Let's assume the rumors are true: someone stated the failure was mathematically impossible, and 57 crews were unable to duplicate the flight on a simulator.
First, the statement is incorrect. Only the most mathematically ignorant would make such a statement. Highly improbably it might be, but not impossible. Which leads to the second fact. A simulator can do no better than the data given it, and if the simulator designers assumed a given event was highly unlikely they would not have bothered designing for it. If 57 crews could not replicate Captain Haynes' flight, that tells me the simulator is at fault-with all respect to the Captain, his crew, and assisting off-duty crew members. RF From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Cooper Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 10:07 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ercoupe-flyin] RE: [ercoupe-tech] re: the hands of GOD . to attribute the outcome of US Airways Flight 1549 to "God" detracts from decades of NTSB and FAA examination of accidents and steady regulatory improvement to flight safety;. Don't forget, on July 19, 1989 Captain Al Haynes crash landed a DC10 in Sioux City, IA. 185 of the 296 souls on board survived. The failure that caused the crash was "mathematically impossible". After it happened, the NTSB replicated the data of Flight 232 and not one of the 57 crews they tested in the simulator could control the airplane all the way to the ground.
