Here is some video footage from YouTube showing the MD-11F bouncing off the runway and flipping over.

Unbelievable.

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Planes can float, but the US Airways Airbus A-320 that crashed into the Hudson River Thursday had a better chance than most.

That’s because it was equipped with a special device unique to Airbus planes that increased the likelihood it would stay on top of the water.

The device, called a “ditching switch,” effectively seals the plane by closing valves and ventilation ports, a spokesman for the airline said.

Industry experts said the ditching switch is rarely invoked, as “it’s not as if anyone expects to ditch these planes,” said Robert W. Mann, who owns a Port Washington-based aviation consulting company.

With the valves and ports shut, “a float line” is created, Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said in an e-mail.

“The ditching switch closes all of the open ports in the bottom of the fuselage,” said Frank Ayers, chairman of the flight training department at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Mann said opening an emergency exit – which happened yesterday when the plane was evacuated – is not a problem as long as the door is above the waterline.

Peter R. Leffe, an aviation accident investigator in Malibu, Calif., noted that because airplanes in general are pressurized, they have some ability to float, providing they don’t break up when they hit water.

“The airplane is a pressure vessel,” he said. “It can float as long as water doesn’t leak in.”

But airplanes can’t float forever.

Water will eventually find a way to seep in, and the airplane’s weight will drive it to the bottom.

“They’re not amphibious,” Mann said. “But the general rule of thumb is, when they’re full of fuel, which is lighter than water, they will float, as long as their structural integrity is intact.”

There are about 2,000 A-320 Airbuses worldwide, 425 of which are in North America, Greczyn said.

The planes, which debuted in 1988, typically seat 150 passengers and are the most popular Airbuses, she said.

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A report released by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch reported that ice in the fuel triggered the British Airways 777 accident.

The British Air Accidents Investigation Branch warned that “immediate action” must be taken out to assess whether the problem which caused the Boeing 777 accident could affect other aircraft.

It also demanded that Boeing put in place new safety measures to ensure that planes travelling at high altitude in temperatures far below freezing do not suffer a potentially disastrous build up of ice in their fuel systems.

The recommendations were made in a report into the crash in January in which a BA 777 flying from Beijing crash landed short of the runway with 136 passengers and 16 crew on board.

One passenger suffered a broken leg and 12 others minor injuries in the worst aviation accident at Heathrow in more than 30 years.

There are nearly 700 Boeing 777s in service and they are one of the workhorses of the skies for long-haul flights.

They include 220 planes powered by the Rolls Royce Trent 800 engine involved in the Heathrow accident, currently operated by 11 airlines, including British Airways.

A report released by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch reported that ice in the fuel triggered the British Airways 777 accident.

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Engine power loss appears to have been the cause of an accident at the UK’s London Heathrow airport, in which a British Airways Boeing 777 landed just inside the airfield boundary some 500m (1,640ft) short of the runway 27L threshold. The 136 passengers were evacuated via all eight slides, with three people suffering minor injuries, according to a statement by the airline’s chief executive Willie Walsh.

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