The ditch switch

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Sunday, January 18. 2009

When an A320 wants to take a bath in a river, you have to prepare the plane for it, as there are many inlets for air. An article in a forum describes the procedure: There is really a "Ditching" switch you can use to close all inlets below flotation line at once. A source near to Airbus told me a few minutes ago, that all newer planes have such a switch. I´m still searching on my A380 cockpit poster ...

PS: When you look at this photo of the overhead panel ... the switch is in the third row from below the third one from the right side

Posted by Joerg Moellenkamp in Aviation, English at 19:45 | Comments (3) | Trackbacks (0)

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I've seen a comment to the effect that there wasn't time to use the switch.

Seeing how damaged the lower rear fuselage was, I'd wonder how much difference it would make.

Exquisite piece of airmanship either way.

#1 ric davis on 2009-01-18 21:19 (Reply)

The ditching switch is actually a pretty easy to use button and doesn't take away too much time, even in an emergency. Don't forget the copilot is there helping the captain along with the switch hitting.
The switch closes all the air valves that help control cabin pressurization in flight.

#1.1 Digitalis (Homepage) on 2009-01-19 02:21 (Reply)

It wasn't used:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/18/new-york-plane-crash-salvage

#2 ric davis on 2009-01-19 09:03 (Reply)

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