If US Airways 1549 had four engines it probably wouldn't need to ditch?

Like an Bae-146, a medium size jetliner with four engines.

Possibly, but the flight had the misfortune of encountering a flock of geese that spanned the entire width of the wings, at least from engine to engine. The odds would have been about the same.

Incorrect assumption.

Two engine aircraft are more efficient and cheaper to buy and operate. They stopped making the BaE 146 in 2002. Just because ONE airplane crashed doesn't mean that they are going to bring back four-engine jets.

Nope. Totally wrong. If the flight of birds was big enough to damage engines on either sides of an A320, it would have been big enough to disable all 4 engines on a similarly sized aircraft with smaller fans.

Sure, and if you were a little smarter you might be accepted into Oxford or MIT. Unfortunately, neither the past nor your intelligence can be changed.

And if it had flapping wings instead of engines it wouldn't have been at risk at all.

Likely all four engines would have been damaged. Even if one had survived. It would not have been enough to keep the plane airborne.

Gee, maybe they should have cages over the inlets, huh?

If it was a BV 222 it would have six engines and could have landed on the water no problem. However, airlines have to use aircraft that are economical for their routes. If you look at LaMia 2933, there's an incident where four engines was no safety advantage.

There are a whole lot of "IF's" about 1549 that would have resulted in not having to land in the water. By the way, they didn't "ditch" - they executed a "water landing" with no thrust which is a scenario all pilots are trained for and have executed on flight simulators.

IF they had been a little higher or a little lower they might have flown right over or under the flock of birds.

IF they had been a little further to one side or the other one of the engines might have not been hit and they could have returned to an airport with one operable engine.

IF the incident had occurred at a higher altitude they might have had enough energy to coast back to a nearby airport.

IF they had been in a 4 engine aircraft they MIGHT have had enough engines survive the encounter to power the aircraft back tot he airport. But most 4 engine aircraft aren't designed to fly on 1 engine, - they need at least 2, so its entirely possible that the wide flock of birds that took out both engines on the twin engine would have taken out at least 3 of the engines on a 4 engine aircraft.

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