A former fighter pilot was hailed as the Hero of the Hudson Thursday night
after he landed a stricken US Airways jet in the river - and made sure
everybody got out alive.
Pilot Chesley Sullenberger was still drying off when Mayor Bloomberg sang
his praises.
"He did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river" and evacuating the
passengers, Bloomberg said of the veteran pilot who lives near San Francisco.
With water seeping into the plane - and all his 150 passengers and four other
crew members safe - Sullenberger walked up and down the center aisle twice to make sure nobody was left before he, too, fled the jet, the mayor
said.
"He was the last one off the plane," Bloomberg said.
Gov. Paterson also praised the ferry boat operators and rescue workers who
rushed over as the plane bobbed in the 40-degree water and plucked the frigid, frightened passengers off the wings.
"We've had a miracle on the Hudson," Paterson said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said everybody was accounted for - a
group that included at least one baby and a passenger who lost a relative in the Sept. 11 attacks.
Passengers described the scene moments after the plane hit the water as
"organized chaos." Yet, there was little panic as they helped each other
reach the exit - allowing women and children to go first.
"It's just incredible right now that everybody's still alive," passenger Alberto
Panero said.
"It
was
intense,
it
was
intense,"
added
another
passenger,
Jeff
Kolodjay. "You've
got
to
give
it
to
the
pilot.
He
made
a
hell
of
a
landing."
It was just 20 degrees at the time and shivering survivors were rushed to
Roosevelt Hospital and other medical centers to be treated for exposure.
Most were expected to be released.
Meanwhile, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board
were inspecting the 9-year-old Airbus A320, which was towed to Battery Park City and moored to a bulkhead just north of the World Financial
Center.
Sullenberger, a 57-year-old former Air Force fighter pilot and a 29-year
veteran of US Airways, told air traffic controllers he hit a flock of geese and that it knocked out both of his engines.
It appeared to be the first time in 45 years that a major aircraft
crash-landed in the water - and every passenger on board made it out alive.
Former Airbus executive George Hamlin said the pilot deserves a big thank
you from the city.
"Ditching an aircraft is a significant accomplishment on the part of the pilot,
as opposed to crashing one," he said. "There's no place for an airplane of
that size to land in Manhattan."
