Is the Hudson river salty?

Looking at Google Maps, it has a big mouth that flows right into the Atlantic Ocean on the eastern side of New York city, so I'd say it would be salty.

So after 3 minutes in the air at what height would they have been at to be able to assess what they were going to do.

Wouldn't have had much time surely. Looks like they had a good runway picture of the river the way the flight path went.

I read it that they were in the air for a total of 3 minutes. If the strike occurred 45 seconds into the flight, they'd be around 2000-2500' perhaps?
Not sure on the glide rate of an A320....:confused:

No way, be full of salt water, plus just about every operating system on it would cactus.

Very funny... :D

Some reports have suggested that the bird/s the aircraft hit were Canada Geese.
These large geese are known for travelling great distances at great heights, being recorded as high as 8000'. To compound the danger they often fly at night and can fly for up to 16 hours in a stretch.

Last year a flock of 4 Canada Geese were located along the south coast of NSW. These birds were thought to have come from New Zealand, and spent nearly a month in various locations from Ulladulla in the south to Shellharbour near Wollongong.
Thankfully they were 'removed' at Shellharbour before they could establish a population here.

Here's a picture of one I took at 'The Farm' near Shellharbour the day before they were removed.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x...03-09_0014.jpg

So they are basically an unwanted species? because of their danger to aviation?

Sounds like ditching the aircraft was a great outcome, if they had tried to land and failed it would have been straight into the ground instead.

Unwanted out here because of their dominating nature and quick breeding. It's just a bonus to aviation that they got removed when they did.

Ahhhh ok, I thought they were one of those majestic breeds of geese, the ones that lay the golden eggs and all :D

Sound like the rats of the sky.