Airbus A320 te koop met wat waterschade

IT'S not airworthy, but the plane that famously crash-landed in New York's Hudson River a year ago is to be auctioned.

 

The New York Post reports the Airbus A320 last flown by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is being auctioned off by a subsidiary of insurance giant AIG, and could end up as scrap metal worth several million dollars. Capt Sullenberger was forced to ditch the jetliner, carrying 155 people, in the river six minutes after departing from LaGuardia Airport on January 15, 2009 after it struck a flock of geese.

The bird strike resulted in an immediate and nearly complete loss of thrust from both engines. "Aircraft suffered severe bird strike event resulting in water emergency landing," the insurance company notice accompanying the sale said.

 

"Severe water damage throughout airframe. Impact damage to underside of aircraft." On top of that, the engines are gone too. But Chartis Insurance has made sure the plane has been cared for at its current resting place in Kearny, New Jersey - it applied a corrosion inhibitor last summer.

 

Prices of recycled aircraft vary, so it's hard to guess what the A320 would pull at auction - especially without the engines, a possible source of valuable metal and spare parts. But Metal Bulletin Monthly recently reported that a similar junked Airbus A310 sold for US$2.6 million ($2.9 million), yielded $4 million when it was broken up for scrap.AIG and US Airways declined to comment on the pending sale