God’s Gifts

Survivors, eyewitnesses, rescuers and experts alike all hailed the expertise, bravery and cool of Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, a hero whose calm saved 155 people, including a little baby, from an icy and fiery death.

A former Air Force fighter pilot who worked for US Airways since 1980, Sullenberger gently touched down the Airbus 320 on the icy Hudson waters, miraculously delivering all onboard to safety.

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So steady was the hand of Sullenberger that all along the bank of the Hudson, eyewitnesses could not believe their eyes: a plane was flying impossibly low yet steady as can be.

It was as if the pilot were approaching a runway – not the icy winter waters of Manhattan’s Hudson River.

CBS 2 HD has learned the crippled plane missed the George Washington Bridge by just 900 feet.

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“It would appear the pilot did a masterful job. He walked the plane twice after everyone else got off. A passenger said he was the last one up the aisle and that there was no one behind him,” Bloomberg said. “This pilot did a wonderful job and it would appear that all 155 got out safely.”

The pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 achieved one of the most technically challenging and seldom attempted feats in commercial aviation: landing on water successfully.

Although commercial jetliners are required to be equipped with life vests and inflatable slides that can be used in emergency landings on water, there have been few, if any, successful attempts during the jet age, in part because of the speed at which such planes take off and land.

To accomplish such a feat so soon after takeoff, while maneuvering over the skyscrapers of Manhattan and into the crowded Hudson River, will likely be seen as a testament to the crew’s piloting skills.