The ‘sickening moment’ when I landed jet in river, by hero pilot

Sullenberger described landing in the icy waters off Manhattan on 15 January.

The pilot's actions helped save the lives of 155 passengers and crew on board the plane, which had just taken off from LaGuardia airport.

"It was the worst, sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling I've ever felt in my life," Sullenberger told CBS television.

He described how 90 seconds after take-off he saw birds filling the windscreen. He said "I could hear them as they hit the plane, loud thumps, it felt like the plane being pelted by heavy rain or hail.

"I felt the engine vibrations of the damage being done and I smelled a burnt-bird smell being brought into the conditioning system.

"It was obvious this was a critical situation, we lost the thrust in both engines at a low speed at a low altitude over one of the most densely populated areas on the planet." "Sully" knew the only hope was landing in the river. He said: "We were descending rapidly towards the water. I needed to touch down with the wings exactly level ... with the nose slightly up ... at a decent rate that was survivable and just above our minimum flying speed but not below it, and I had to make all these things happen simultaneously.

"Hitting the water was hard, then we scooted along the surface, then at some point the nose did come down as the speed decreased, then we turned slightly to the left and stopped."

When later told that everyone had survived the crash, the pilot said: "It felt like the weight of the universe had been lifted off of me."