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Investigation begins in plane's NYC splash landing

Photo

Associated Press

Airline passengers wait to board boats to be rescued on the wings of a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner that safely ditched in the frigid waters of the Hudson River in New York, Thursday Jan. 15, 2009 after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines. All 155 people on board survived.

NEW YORK — Investigators brought in a giant crane and a barge Friday to help pull a US Airways jetliner from the Hudson River, and survivors among the 155 people aboard recounted tales of horror and hailed the pilot as a hero who delivered them from certain death.

While on a rescue raft with pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III in the frigid cold, passenger Billy Campbell said he went to him.

"I leaned over and grabbed his arm, and I said I just want to thank you on behalf of all of us," Campbell told NBC television Friday. "He just said, 'You're welcome.''"

Campbell was sitting in the back of the plane when it landed on the water.

"The water was rushing in through the window seams and we couldn't get the back exit open," he said. "So, that scared us a little bit, and we tried and the flight attendant did a wonderful job trying, but then finally turned and said immediately "'Go to the wing (exit).'"

National Transportation Safety Board investigators will now focus on recovering the black box from the plane and interviewing the crew about the accident — apparently caused by birds that slammed into the plane's two engines. The Airbus A320, built in 1999, was tethered to a pier on the tip of Lower Manhattan on Friday morning. Only a gray wing tip could be seen jutting out of the water near a Lower Manhattan sea wall. About a block away, it was business as usual as residents jogged or headed to work.

"We want to get the plane recovered as soon as possible but we want to do it a safe way," safety board spokeswoman Kitty Higgins said.

Higgins said one challenge will be hauling the plane out of the water without causing it to break apart.

Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeff Skiles and crew have become instant heroes for guiding the plane to safety and safely evacuating the passengers. Sullenberger's wife told CNN she hadn't been watching the news and was stunned to hear about the ordeal from her husband after it was all over.

Lorrie Sullenberger, speaking later Friday with her daughters outside their California home, acknowledged it's "a little weird" to hear the country calling her husband a hero. She described him as "a pilot's pilot" who "loves the art of the airplane."

She said when her two daughters went to sleep Thursday night, "I could hear them talking, 'Is this weird or what?'"

James Ray, a spokesman for the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, said he spoke with Sullenberger on Friday and described him as being "in good shape physically, mentally and in good spirits."

"He was just very calm and cool, very relaxed, just very professional," Ray said.

Ray said the flight crew was resting and likely would meet with investigators later Friday or Saturday. He said the crew has been asked not talk to the press about the accident until after the federal safety board's investigation is complete.

Sullenberger, 57, of Danville, California, is a former Air Force fighter pilot who has flown for US Airways for 29 years. He also runs a safety consulting firm.

US Airways chief executive Doug Parker said in a statement it was premature to speculate about the cause. Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said there was no immediate indication the incident was "anything other than an accident."

On his Friday morning radio show, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city "got away with a miracle." He planned to honor the rescuers at a City Hall ceremony later Friday.

It was a chain of improbability. Birds tangle with airplanes regularly but rarely bring down commercial aircraft. Jet engines sometimes fail — but both at once? Pilots train for a range of emergencies, but few, if any, have ever successfully ditched a jet in one of the nation's busiest waterways without any life-threatening injuries.

If the accident was hard to imagine, so was the result: Besides one victim with two broken legs, there were no other reports of serious injuries to the 155 people aboard.

US Airways Airbus A320, bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, took off from LaGuardia Airport at 3:26 p.m. Less than a minute later, the pilot reported a "double bird strike" and said he needed to return to LaGuardia, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Passengers quickly realized something was terrifyingly wrong.

"I heard an explosion, and I saw flames coming from the left wing, and I thought, 'This isn't good,'" said Dave Sanderson, 47, who was heading home to Charlotte from a business trip. "Then it was just controlled chaos. People started running up the aisle. People were getting shoved out of the way."

Then came an ominous warning from the captain: "Brace for impact because we're going down," according to passenger Jeff Kolodjay, 31.

Onshore, from streets and office windows, witnesses watched the plane steadily descend off roughly 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.

"I just thought, 'Why is it so low?' And, splash, it hit the water," said Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The Associated Press, who watched the water landing from the news organization's high-rise office.

The 150 passengers and five crew members were forced to escape as the plane quickly became submerged up to its windows in 36-degree (2 Celsius) water. Dozens stood on the aircraft's wings on a 20-degree (-7 Celsius) day, one of the coldest of the winter, as commuter ferries and Coast Guard vessels converged to rescue them.

One ferry, the Thomas Jefferson of the company NY Waterway, arrived within minutes. Riders grabbed life vests and rope and tossed them to plane passengers in the water.

"They were cheering when we pulled up," Capt. Vincent Lombardi. "People were panicking. They said, 'Hurry up! Hurry up!'"

Paramedics treated at least 78 patients, many for hypothermia, bruises and other minor injuries, fire officials said. Some of the shivering survivors were swaddled in blankets, their feet and legs soaked.

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Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Michael J. Sniffen and Eileen Sullivan in Washington; David B. Caruso, Sara Kugler, Marcus Franklin, Samantha Gross, Deborah Hastings, Colleen Long and Richard Pyle in New York; Victor Epstein in Weekhawken, New Jersey; and Harry R. Weber in Atlanta contributed to this report.