NavList:

In the film “Sully”  the  co-pilot Jeff Skiles was asked at the end of the hearing if there was anything he would do differently if he had to do it a again. He quipped he would do it in July. Which caused me to wonder if they would have cleared the George Washington bridge had the air been warmer  and barometric  pressure lower.

From what I can ascertain the GW bridge is about 600 ft high and  they cleared it by about  900 feet (300 meters).  The general weather reported AM snow January 15, 2009 due to a fast moving low front. The best I can tell looking at isobars near the time of the water landing, and noting a reported  altimeter setting of 30.25 inches hg* (approx. 1024.4 mb) the pressure was on the high side and rising,  which should  have provided greater lift than 1013 mb would.

My question to our experienced pilots is this: Had it been July with much warmer air and perhaps much lower barometric pressure, would the aircraft have cleared the bridge during its descent from 3000 feet? Put another way, how much affect would BP have on the airliner’s glide ratio?

* http://www.weatherwise.org/Archives/Back%20Issues/2010/January-February%202010/retrospect-full.html