NEW YORK (Reuters) - A U.S. Airways jet with about 150 people on board came down into the frigid Hudson River off Manhattan after apparently hitting a flock of geese on Thursday and officials said everyone was rescued. Rescued passengers said they believed everyone had survived the crash, which left the Airbus A320 intact and floating in the river. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was investigating reports that the plane hit a flock of birds after taking off from New York's LaGuardia airport and fell into the river on a freezing winter day. An FAA spokeswoman said: "We've confirmed everyone got off." A passenger told Reuters there was what sounded like an explosion a few minutes after takeoff. "The engine blew. There was fire everywhere and it smelled like gas," Jeff Kolodjay, from Norwalk, Connecticut, told Reuters on a midtown Manhattan quay. "People were bleeding all over. We hit the water pretty hard. It was scary." Another rescued passenger, Alberto Panero, told CNN, "I'm pretty sure everyone got off ... It's just incredible that everyone's alive." As many as eight ferries and local water taxi services rushed to rescue passengers, some of whom lined up on the half-submerged plane's wings, some wearing yellow life vests, before police boats arrived. "I saw the plane coming in very low but under control, it splashed down in the water. Once it cleared it was still floating on its belly," said Thomson Reuters employee Alex Whittaker who was in a 22nd floor meeting room at the company's Times Square building. "The doors opened and we could see life rafts and we could just about see a few people climbing out onto the water," he said. Flight 1549 was headed for Charlotte, North Carolina. US Airways said in a statement it was investigating the incident. The FAA said the plane was an Airbus A320 with 148 passengers and four or five crew. [YOUTUBE]PLAz5yPKGv0[/YOUTUBE]
Crazy that everyone walked out of it alive , when that news broke my brother was in my house using my computer to book flights to new york and had a look on us airways website and flights had dropped by €130 in the space of an hour earlier from when he priced them originally
fair play to the pilot, landing a plane must be tough enough but to land on a river, without the plane breaking on impact and everyone alive That lad will get a medal or two
Its not even about saving the passengers but could you imagine the loss of life it came down in the city streets/buildings. Amazing story.
Pilot is going to get the keys of NYC after the investigation. On top of landing softly on the water he personally was the last man out after taking 2 separate nose to tail searches of the aircraft while in the water. It was about - 7degrees celcius yesterday in NYC, the worst any of the passengers had was hypothermia after wading in the water. Amazing story!
"Amazing story!" Spot on . Seen a guy on tv today who is in the record books for landing a plane which had all 4 engines die on him and he even said that because he was at 37,000 feet when it happpened he had longer to think about how to land safely than the pilot on this plane,so this was a bigger achievement !! Higher praise you couldnt get .
Unreal, fair play to the pilot, with over 40 years of flying experience behind him id say there is nothing in aviation he wouldnt know. Cant make out how he landed the plane without it breaking up or the wings comming off tho, i guess he must have landed it dead level, i new a plane could glide in for a landing if the engines failed but so quick after take off, that landing was unreal.
Just after I had gotten over my recently formed fear of flying after being on the flight struck by lightning coming back from PSV game in October I hear about this happening! Can't wait for my flight on Monday now. All that said, a great end to what could have been a very tragic story. The pilot deserves all the acolades he's been receiving. As said above, a miracle the plane didn't break up on impact.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/ click on the various links to see the video the pilot landed the tail in first if he was 1degree off balance the plane would have shattered to pieces
Passengers on board the plane that crash landed in the hudson should thank there lucky stars they didnt have this "hero"flying the plane,it was a case of looking after NO.1 with this "ICEMAN".