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The ‘sickening moment’ when I landed jet in river, by hero pilot
Danny Brierley9 Feb 2009
Pilot Chesley Sullenberger today recalled the moment he lost both engines and ditched his passenger jet into New York's Hudson river.
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.”
Reader views (3)
I am really glad everyone on board survived, but this story needs to be put to rest.
- John, arizona, usa, 10/02/2009 09:23
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Indeed a great feat and deserving of much praise.
But the Thames Estuary woukld be a bit different to the Hudson River in stormforce gales and high seas...
- Peter Seekings-Foster, Mildenhall, Suffolk., 09/02/2009 17:47
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A fantastic effort, and an inspiration to us all. What gives us all confidence in flying is the thought that all pilots would display the same level of cool strength under duress as this pilot. Of course, the water landing strip helped. Building an airport in the Thames Estuary would have the benefit of aiding such emergency landings.
- Phil Jones, London UK, 09/02/2009 11:27
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