Five years ago, a US Airways flight splash-crashed into the icy Hudson River. Amazingly, no one died and all 155 passengers and crew members escaped the sinking plane, thanks to many boats on the river who rushed to help, like the NY Waterway ferries. It turned out that the plane suffered a bird strike, disabling its engines. Pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger decided instead of trying to return Flight 1549 back to LaGuardia Airport that he would land the plane in the water.
The plane landed by the West 40s in Manhattan. After the passengers and crew were taken off the plane, the plane drifted downriver. It was stabilized by Battery Park City, where crews and NTSB investigators removed the engines and other parts.
One passenger Jeff Kolodjay, who was in seat 22A, said, "All of a sudden the captain came on and he told us to brace ourselves and probably brace ourselves pretty hard. But he did an amazing job -- kudos to him on that landing." He had explained, "About three or four minutes into the flight the left engine just blew, fire and flames came out of it and it just started smelling a lot like gasoline."
Sullenberg's cool extended to his wife Lorrie, who said she had no idea what had happened until she got a call: "I hadn't been watching the news. I've heard Sully say to people, 'It's rare for an airline pilot to have an incident in their career.' When he called me he said, 'There's been an accident.' At first I thought it was something minor, but then he told me the circumstances and my body started shaking and I rushed to get our daughters out of school."
One of the earliest photographs of the passengers and the plane—and certainly the first that was so close—was a picture that Janis Krums Tweeted out. Krums, an entrepreneur who splits his time between New York, Florida and Latvia, was on a ferry that went to pick up the passengers. He told us today that he and the others on the boat "were stunned, not sure of what to do next." His picture crashed Twitpic.
The incident led to the geese culling at area airports. Flight 1549 also forced the FDNY to upgrade its Marine Unit and to revamp how it deals with water emergencies. The Times reported: "In re-engineering its approach to the city’s waterways and more than 400 miles of shoreline, the department is adding large and small vessels to its fleet of fireboats in New York Harbor, and employing new technology that can turn a boat into a floating command and control center to assess, or to direct the response to, potential waterborne challenges, like rescues or terrorism attacks."
At the time, then Governor David Paterson said, "We had a Miracle on 34th Street, now, I believe, we have a Miracle on the Hudson."
