Plane Crashed in the Hudson River

NEW YORK (WABC) -- Eyewitness News has learned a plane has crashed into the Hudson River.

The plane is a US Airways plane.

The plane went down near 57th street around 3:30 p.m. Rescuers are on the scene.

There is no word on injuries or cause of the crash at this time.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=6606410

It is a scary approach, into or out of LaGuardia. When I first heard this, I thought they meant the plane just went off the runway - seems like this happens with some frequency there. But they somehow landed in the Hudson River, which means they flew over Manhattan before crashing.

Now they are saying the plane remained afloat long enough to rescue "all passengers", but sank after 30 minutes. Not sure what that means for the crew. It wouldn't take long to die of hypothermia in water at 42 degrees. The U S Search and Rescue Task Force predicts loss of consciousness somewhere around 30 minutes, and survival time 60-90 minutes in that temperature range.

Sounds like a near perfect landing and rescue considering the circumstances. The entire fuselage remained intact and ferries were on the scene almost immediately.

Now they are saying that everyone on board was rescued, and the plane has not actually sunk. Live video shows it riding very low in the water, and they apparently plan to tow it to one of the ferry docks.

Excellent picture, and you can see how perfectly the rescue was managed from looking at it. I bet they were frozen solid though just from being on the water for whatever amount of time it took.

I wonder if the cold weather is responsible for the crash. Maybe inadequate de-icing?

>6 debherter:
Geese in the engines.

>7 DaynaRT:
I'll guess that all of the passengers moved to one side of the plane to see the Statue of Liberty and it capsized.

P.S. >8 debherter:

I hope you were kidding on #6. Otherwise my response seems to be in very poor taste. If we both were kidding then it's just good fun.

No, not kidding. The FAA is saying a bird or birds struck the engine.

Some of you know I work at Charlotte Douglas Airport, the destination of this plane. The joint was certainly jumping around here yesterday afternoon. There are more news trucks parked in front than I've ever seen here all trying to intercept the survivors on their return. Everybody here is pretty happy today! Whew!

>10 DaynaRT: Yes, I've watched the news since I made my silly statement. Evidently a large number of birds and they hit both engines. The pilot and co-pilot are certainly to be commended along with those passengers who helped others to leave the plane.

From the little I caught of the news this morning, it sounded like the NTSB confirmed a double bird strike. I think they were sending off what was left so that a species could be identified.

They have sent the bird remains to the Smithsonian to be typed. They have also released the cockpit recordings of the pilot and the tower. He was one cool cucumber.

Air traffic tapes and a transcript have been released. Both the pilot and the air traffic controller sound remarkably calm and collected. If I am ever in a bad flight, I want both of those guys to be in control!

Sully is my flyboy. And the rest of the gang too.

Huge credit goes to the ferry captains who got their boats to the scene in a hurry. Otherwise we'd be talking about the brave flight crew (and all the passengers) in the past tense.

It was cold that day, air temp below freezing and water temp just above, and everyone aboard would have drowned or died of hypothermia if they hadn't been rescued quickly. The NYPD divers did a good job, too, plucking a couple of passengers out of the Hudson.

And it sure didn't hurt that the plane splashed down so close to the Greater New York chapter of the American Red Cross. They got there in a hurry, and I did enjoy all the photos of people wrapped in ARC blankets. (I received an e-mail asking if I was available, but they never got back to me; there were plenty of responders closer to the scene.)

All too true, everything came together for them. When we initially heard it came down intact we figured them for goners anyway because of the water temp. Some of our locals got their belongings back this week, a bit worse for wear. One of the gentleman had been reading a book by Michael Connelly. It had obviously been thoroughly wet at one time. US Air did dry everything out nicely though. Mr. Connelly agreed to sign the book for the passenger and he intends to finish reading it.

Varielle (18), what a great story! Although I'm sure there are easier ways to acquire an autographed copy... but that book will become an heirloom.

I just watched Frontline the other night, regarding the inexperienced, overworked, underpaid, local-route airline pilots. It shows how truly fortunate the NYC passengers were, to have Sully in the captain's chair.

Unfortunately, Sully is now retiring: http://www.heralddemocrat.com/hd/News/A9489-BC-US-USAirways-SullyRe-7thLd-Writet...

Has anyone read Sully's book????

I have not read it yet, Terri.