Passengers in NY plane ordeal marvel they’re alive
NEW YORK – Shock, relief, gratitude. Most of all, the soaked and freezing passengers of Flight 1549 just seemed amazed to be alive.
All of them.
“You’ve got to give it to the pilot,” said Jeff Kolodjay of Norwalk, Conn., who was aboard the US Airways jet that ditched in the frigid Hudson River after an apparent collision with a flock of birds. “He made a hell of a landing.”
“He was phenomenal,” echoed Joe Hart, of Long Island, a salesman with investment firm ING.
“He landed it — I tell you what — the impact wasn’t a whole lot more than a rear-end (collision). It threw you into the seat ahead of you. Both engines cut out, and he actually floated it into the river,” he added.
Hart said he waited out on the wing of the plane, with others, as the water level rose from his knee to his waist.
“Most of the panic occurred while we were out on the wings or in the water, and the ferry boats were coming.” But, he added, “I couldn’t believe how fast they showed up. They were right there to pick us up.”
“I knew I was safe,” he said. “The big guy upstairs didn’t want me.” Later, Hart had recovered enough to send a humorous text message to an Associated Press reporter: “I’m certain this will get me an upgrade on my next flight!”
Soon after the plane took off from LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, N.C., passenger Albert Panero felt “an impact and some sort of loud noise.” He started smelling smoke. “Everybody could tell that something was kind of going on, it wasn’t just turbulence or something like that.”
Soon, Panero said on WABC-TV, “I knew that we were going down.”
