LOL, one comment I heard on the news last night was one passenger saying that it was very smooth. She's had rougher landings on planes with the landing gear down!

Were there any injuries? I would expect a certain number of injuries just evacuating the passengers down emergency slides.

If you realize an emergency landing is imminent, you should immediately adopt the brace position.

In this case, the emergency landing was a prepared one - flight attendants would have been able to brief passengers on their nearest exit, removing eyeglasses, pens, sharp objects from their person , stowing all objects that could become projectiles. Part of the prepared emergency landing briefing is to have all passengers practice the brace position before adopting it about 20 seconds before touchdown. Typically the flight attendants will shout "Brace Brace" or "Bend over, grab your ankles".

However, in an unanticipated emergency - such as a rejected takeoff, runway overrun or other sudden emergency - you may not get any warning from the crew. Properly bracing can dramatically decrease your risk of head injury (i.e. avoid you from becoming unconscious post-crash!) and limb injury. Generally in a forward facing seat, you want to position your head on whatever you are most likely to strike (ie place your forehead on the seatback in front of you if you can reach it). It is best to check the aircraft safety card to see what is the airline's recommended brace position (it's required to be on the card.)

Remember, in the US commercial passenger aircraft have a "16 G Survival rule"...you're supposed to be able to walk away from a 16G crash, and thus seats are actually designed to be energy absorbing. Getting in the brace position enhances your survival chances significantly.

A good link with info on surviving a plane crash (I think this may have been where I saw the statistic about distance from exits): http://www.onebag.com/popups/plane-crashes.pdf

Absolutely, Arney. He was flying the plane even AFTER it touched down. The perfect landing (and the pilot did it) means the LAST thing to come down is the nose.

It appears to me that the attitude is set by three points comprised of the lower rear fuselage and the two engine nacelles. Note that the aircraft has the same attitude once it was stopped. After touching down you can pull on the flight controls all you want, but other forces are in control.

If he had landed on his main landing gear you could watch as the pilot held the nose up until he lost enough airspeed, then the nose falls thru regardless of flight controls. IMO

I had thought the same thing myself at first except that in the video, I don't see any smoke or sparks coming from the bottom of the nacelles, only from the tail section as it drags along the runway. If the engine nacelles were holding up the weight of the entire front half of the plane, I would expect to see more evidence of it.

Hmm, well, unless perhaps the plane was rolled slightly to the left and it was the nacelle on the other side of the plane--away from the camera--that was bearing the brunt of the weight. I feel like we're dissecting a UFO video now.