Cynical Nation

You heard about how this story broke on Twitter first, right? I probably wouldn't have known about it (I'm not really into this sort of thing and it's not in my vicinity, so I would have had no reason to) except that the picture you feature above was taken by someone on the rescue boat who promptly twittered about it:

http://twitter.com/jkrums/status/1121915133

I hadn't heard that, actually. Crazy world we live in. Maybe I've been unfairly dismissive of Twitter.

What a weird (and wonderful) thing to see. Well, at least once you knew that everything had turned out right. And very weird that it broke on Twitter first!

"I first saw it up around midtown, and over the next couple of hours, as it grew darker, it had meandered all the way down near the World Trade Center." (BNJ)


Actually, they towed it down to Battery Park Plaza.

We were there for about six hours, while they decided what they were going to do with the jet fuel.

The pilot (Chesley Sullenburger) was the hero of that event, bringing down a jet, whose engines had reportedly shut down after some birds were sucked into the jets. He was still able to make a prety smooth, by most accounts, water landing...THAT was miraculous.

I heard it come in over our computer dispatch system around 3 pm or so, as "Small plane down in the Hudson off 48th Street."

Well, it was a plane down in the Hudson, around Midtown.

That was our original site - the West Side Highway and 45th Street, until they towed it down to Battery Park.

That pilot did a GREAT job. The Police and Fire Marine Units do great work too. We also had about 100 or so pieces of apparatus combined (FD/PD) on shore, but there wasn't all that much for the land-based Units to do.

I could care less who "broke" the story first. The important person was not the guy on the ferry who had a camera and the Internet on his phone, but the driver who recognized the situation immediately and was able to bring the ferry around to rescue the first 55 people.

I really don't know why we care who was "first" with the story. Not that I expected this passenger to do anything, but his taking a photo and posting it first.. well yeah.. so?

It was good to have a good news story. I think people needed it.

"The important person was...the driver (of the ferry) who recognized the situation immediately and was able to bring the ferry around to rescue the first 55 people." (PE)


There were a few ferries that helped with the rescue efforts, along with almost every NYPD Harbor Unit and most of the FDNY's Marine Units and they did use Rescue 1's and Rescue 5's divers, along with the NYPDs divers...they all did grat, but Chesley Sullenberger III (the pilot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549) who really was the hero of that day.

He reportedly got over the loudspeaker and told passengers "brace for impact."

Survivors said it was about 20 seconds later when the plane struck the water of the Hudson River on Thursday afternoon.

One passenger, Vincent Spera descibed the landing; "Have you ever been in a speedboat and hit some wake? That's what it felt like, when you go over the wake and you hit the water again. ... It wasn't that bad of an impact, which was strange. And then after that, there wasn't a lot of yelling and screaming. It was fairly orderly getting off the plane."

That airplane pilot and that crew did a great job.

>Actually, they towed it down to Battery Park Plaza.

Oh cool. And did they ever fish it out?

>It was good to have a good news story. I think people needed it.

Yeah, but apparently we're all missing the point here. Evidently the overarching lesson to this narrative is that Bush sucks.

Apparently, they've tied it up and are leaving it in the water for now.

My guess is that people would've died if not for the water taxis. The first ferry took aboard 55 people. Given that some were immersed in the water, it could've been fatal if not for the immediate response.

Barry, that IS reaching?

So, who's up for a good goose dinner?

">Actually, they towed it down to Battery Park Plaza." (JMK)

"Oh cool. And did they ever fish it out?" (BNJ)


PE's right, "Apparently, they've tied it up and are leaving it in the water for now."

Everyone on-scene only gets a part of what's going on. The divers had their part, the police and fire harbor and marine Units had theirs, and Hazmat had ours (a VERY limited one)...in fact, as I started our report yesterday, I began it with the erroneous information we initially received, "small plane down."

That was only corrected later in the incident.

The Coast Guard and NTSB took over the investigation after the people were all saefly removed.

I'm sure they'll eventually take it out of the water, but it seems they started their investigations on-scene.

Numerous ferries and other crafts did an excellent job providing a place for the rescued people. The divers did a great job of getting people, some of them still in the plane, even as it was filling with water, but that pilot was really incredible.

It's amazing that that craft didn't come apart on impact with the water. I guess his glider training came in handy here.

They took it out of the water yesterday.

The day crew was down there from around 9:30 am to about 9 pm last night. They had Hazmat-1 offload the jet fuel, but it took a lot of "negotiations" between the numerous agencies on scene.

I'm glad I missed that one.

So, now the NTSB has the entire aircraft out of the water for their investigation.