The Hudson Miracle

BANGALORE: The dramatic emergency landing of an Airbus A320 jetliner into New York’s Hudson River in which 155 escaped from the jaws of death will go down in the annals of history as a great miracle.
Bangalore too has had its share of water landings in the past and though such landings did not involve large passenger aircraft, they were no less than miraculous.
Since 2005, about nine crashes have occurred in the Bangalore airspace, five involving water landings.
In four of the five water landings, the passengers and crew had a miraculous escape. Only in once incident were four members onboard a private four-seater Pilactus 68 aircraft killed after crashing into the Gowdanapalya Lake in September 2007.
The first incident was in April 9, 2005, when a two seater Hansa aircraft crashed into a lake near the HAL airport, just a few minutes before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived at the airport. The pilots, Air Vice-Marshal (Retd) Ajith Lamba, and an M.Tech. student of the Indian Institute of Science espaced with minor injuries.
Later that year in July, two pilots on a Cessna-340 aircraft which was involved in cloud seeding operations crashed into the Jakkur Lake. Both survived, with injuries.
In 2006, a Deccan Aviation helicopter too met a similar fate when the pilots force-landed on the Jakkur lake bed and escaped unhurt. Probes revealed that the crashes had occurred due to technical snags.
Former President of the Aeronautical Society of India Wg.Cdr A E Patrawala says that the reasons why pilots resort to force or crash land on water bodies is because the chances of survival are more.
“The A320 landing into the lake was a copy book flat landing by the pilots. After landing the aircraft floated and there was sufficient time for rescuers to evacuate the passengers. During training, pilots are taught that in the eventuality of a force-landing they should look for a runway or a flat surface. Else, flat-landing in a water body is preferable,” he said.

Ochroma pyramidale/ Balsa

Balsa (Ochroma pyramidale, synonym O. lagopus) is a large, fast-growing tree that can grow up to 30m (100ft) tall, native to tropical South America north to southern Mexico. It is evergreen, or dry-season deciduous if the dry season is long, with large (30–50 cm, 12-20 in) weakly palmately lobed leaves. The name balsa derives from Spanish for a raft. Despite being very soft, balsa is classified as a hardwood, and is the softest commercial hardwood.
The timber is very soft and light with a coarse open grain. The density of dry balsa wood ranges from 100–200 kg/m³ (6.24-12.49 lb/ft³), with a typical density of about 140 kg/m³ (8.74 lb/ft³) (about one third the density of other hard woods). It is also a very popular material to use when making wooden crankbaits for fishing, as it is low density but high in strength. Balsa wood is used to make very light, stiff structures in model bridge tests and for the construction of light wooden aeroplanes, most famously the World War II de Havilland Mosquito. It is also used in the floorpan of the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 sandwiched between two sheets of carbon fibre. In table tennis bats, a balsa layer is typically sandwiched between two pieces of thin plywood. Balsa wood is also used in laminates with glass-reinforced plastic (fiberglass) for making high-quality balsa surfboards and the decks and topsides of many types of boats, especially pleasure craft under 30m (100 ft) in length.
Balsa wood is often used as a core material in composites, and as a result many wind turbines are made partially of balsa. It also remains a popular material for model aircraft, offering an excellent balance of strength and lightness.