Capt. Sully reunites with passengers on 10th anniversary of 'Miracle on the Hudson'

that's where you guys haven't changed at all it was a reunion you thought possible to see him how are you wonderful i'm alive a decade after their plane made an unimaginable emergency landing on the hudson river passengers from flight 1549 gathered beneath its wreckage yesterday and it's good to be with our old friend isn't it yes to greet the man widely credited with saving their lives captain chesley sully sullenberger good to see you good to see you their seat numbers once a near-death sentence now a badge of honor 12 f 26 d 20 c 1 c what's it like being here today in the shadow of this plane thankful gratitude grateful always every day appreciation for all these extra days we didn't think we would get just before the impact it was so just awful because you thought i'm counting down the very last seconds of my life it all began 10 years ago to the day january 15 2009. so honored to be here right where it all took place right here it's a very vivid reminder to be here and to know that this is the place where it all had to happen at 3 25 pm u.s airways flight 1549 took off from new york's laguardia airport bound for charlotte north carolina less than three minutes into the flight the lives of all 155 people on board would be forever changed this is a cactus 1539 hit birds we lost thrust on both hands returning back towards laguardia i was sitting right there and it started smelling a lot like gasoline and a couple minutes after that the pilot said you guys got to brace for a hard impact and that's when everyone started to be honest saying prayers it was intense it was sudden just 100 seconds after takeoff we were suddenly confronted with this ultimate challenge of a lifetime the a320 paralyzed after encountering a flock of geese air traffic controllers jumping into action to find a quick landing site act is 15 29. we can get it for you do you want to try to land 1913 we may end up in hudson too far to return to laguardia controllers suggesting an emergency landing at nearby teterboro airport okay which runway would you like at peterborough we had only a few minutes to decide where on the earth's surface we should land i had to make sure that happened to the best possible place and it happened to be right here the only place in our gliding distance that was long enough smooth enough wide enough even to attempt landing a large jet air ladder this was your landing strip we made a runway out of a river inside the plane eric stevenson prepares for the worst at seat 12-f as we were going down i'm thinking well these are the last seconds i pulled out a business card and i wrote on the back of the business card and to my mom and to my sister i love you and i shoved it into my pocket because i thought if the aircraft exploded or at least it would be near my body and they knew i was thinking of them as we were going down down the aisle at seat 19f jim whitaker volunteers to protect the flight's youngest passenger i asked this very brave courageous woman if i could hold her baby because that was obviously the smallest passenger on board and if anyone was going to survive hopefully it was going to be this one seconds later the unthinkable there is an airplane down in the hudson river right off manhattan hit the water pretty hard i just saw the big splash where the plane just bounced over the water the aircraft splashing to a halt narrowly missing the skyscrapers of midtown manhattan but the nightmare was far from over i cracked my sternum on impact and when i hit that water that was 36 degrees i honestly thought that maybe i wasn't gonna make it then when the plane hit the water and the water rushed in the back of the plane it was frigid cold and that's how i knew i was still alive the water was up to here and it was 35 degree water so it was like needles i've survived this impact and now i'm gonna drown back here that was my scariest moment on the shore abc's robin roberts witnessing the crash from her apartment overlooking the hudson it was just an amazing landing the fuselage never broke up or anything like that he understood how to fly that aircraft without power and if you watch the way he landed it that was a bit of piloting expertise the terrifying flight turning into a miraculous rescue within minutes local ferry boats rushed to rescue the passengers standing on the wings looking at them through the window and i was like oh my god i hope you can get all of them when you see an aircraft go down like that you're worried that nobody's going to get out there actually you're getting the first view of it we can just see the tail of the u.s airplane sticking up over the water there are a number of ferries right around it the first new york waterway ferry arrived three minutes 55 seconds after we had touched the water remarkably all 155 souls on board surviving including that baby tucked into jim whitaker's arms it's amazing how tough children are but a nine month old baby turned sideways can be held just like a football and at 150 miles an hour hitting that water it was truly an amazing experience that that child didn't even cry until we came to a complete stop ever the heroic pilot sully is the last one to leave the plane i was on pins and needles for four terrifying hours until finally that evening still in the hospital being evaluated i got the word it was official everyone was accounted for everyone was safe and only then could i feel the weight of the universe being lifted off by heart that weight of the universe is now known as the miracle on the hudson was it a miracle no it was hard work on the part of many people and an entire industry over many decades so it was everyone pulling together to not let anyone die the harrowing tale of survival ripe for a hollywood retelling appropriately titled sully mayday mayday made his detective 1549 we've lost thrust on both engines we are turning back towards the laguardia what do you all think of tom hanks playing your hero spot on yeah that's good really good well sully's better looking first of all he's probably more qualified as a pilot i'm a little bit taller in the film sully is grilled by investigators for potential wrongdoing look i'm sorry if you're frustrated but our job is to investigate how a plane ended up in the hudson river but in reality the ntsb investigation heaped preys on sully and his co-pilot jeff skyles for saving the lives of everyone on board in the movie it looked like they were second guessing him and they were to a degree but he came out with flying colors and what he did was exactly the right thing a decade after the so-called miracle on the hudson lessons have been learned the airplanes that are being built today are being built to a higher standard to be able to withstand the impact of birds on the blades or on the fuselage itself but it's always going to be a problem of having birds running into airplanes that is not going to go away i think the aviation industry has learned that automation can save lives can make this industry safer but when something bad happens if the automation fails nothing like having an amazing pilot in the cockpit who can fly an aircraft and bring it down safely [Music] with the passage of time i have even greater appreciation for how much went right and how much we accomplished that day i think everyone involved this group of strangers were able to rise to the occasion to face this sudden unanticipated challenge make it their mission life to see that everyone was saved surviving against the odds the passengers of flight 1549 all have the same message for their hero thank you for saving our lives thank you thank you forever thank you for eternity all of us are thankful of course you simply served and did what was asked of you i think we all did our jobs certainly my crew our first officer jeff skyles our flight attendants donna dent during welsh and sheila dale new york waterway whose vessels pulled us from the frigid hudson and all the first responders of new york and new jersey and sully if the same thing or a similar thing happened today would the outcome necessarily be the same and could you do it again wasn't once enough [Laughter] hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you'd like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don't forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 2,738,029

Keywords: Capt, Chesley, Sullenberger, Sully, Miracle, Hudson, 10th, anniversary, Hero, pilot, US, Airways, Flight, 1549, Airbus, A320, emergency, landing, abc, abcnews

Id: IaKPVz8HwHk

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 16 2019