US Airways Flight 1549 was removed from the Hudson River yesterday, and the National Transportation Safety Board said that they had recovered both black boxes—the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder. The two recorders (flight data recorder pictured below) were taken to Washington D.C. for analysis.
The Airbus A320 plane, which landed in the Hudson on Thursday afternoon after a suspected bird strike damaged its engines, proved to be difficult to remove, given the currents and the icy conditions, but it was finally lifted by 1:30 a.m. today. The NY Times described the efforts:
The operation took up most of the day on Saturday, as the workers maneuvered the jetliner away from the promenade that runs along the river. They eventually were able to pull the plane from the Hudson’s edge and point its nose cone toward the New Jersey as they pulled it farther in the river to haul it onto the barge. At the end of the operation, crews had pulled the plane parallel to the shore and hoisted it up with the two harnesses.
The plane's right engine was still attached, while the left engine has not been located yet. The Daily News reports that the plane, with all the water in it, weighed about 1 million pounds; also: "The NYPD recovered a variety of plane parts and other items from the Hudson - including an aircraft door, flotation cushions and 15 pieces of carry-on luggage," which were given to the NTSB. The plane is being transported to an undisclosed location in NJ.
The NTSB also interviewed the plane's crew, including the pilot, Captain Chesley Sullenberger, and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles (who took his shirt off to give to a passenger in a freezing wet shirt): Apparently Skiles was flying the planes when "big, dark brown birds" hit the plane shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport; Sullenberger also smelled the "burning birds." Sullenberger took over the controls and first told air traffic control, "Ah, this is Cactus 1549. Hit birds. We lost thrust in both engines. We're turning back towards LaGuardia." But he decided to land the plane in the Hudson because both engines were out and he was worried about how low they were.
A flight attendant told the NTSB that after the engines went out, it was silent, "It was like being in a library." Another said she prevented a passenger from opening a rear door, which, the AP reports, would have let in water; she later realized "her leg had a severe cut - the most serious wound to anyone on board."
