Miracle on the Hudson - Flight 1549

It's being called the Miracle on the Hudson and that it was. If you don't believe in miracles you have only to watch the footage of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 gliding into the dark, frigid Hudson River and the passengers standing on its wings to believe and to smile.

At approximately 3:30 pm EST yesterday, January 15, 2009, Flight 1549, an Airbus 320 carrying 155 people including 5 crew members too off for Charlotte, North Carolina from La Guardia Airport. I've taken that flight many times. Hate the Charlotte airport but otherwise it's usually a pleasant an uneventful flight, just long enough for a good nap. I imagine I would be just closing my eyes soon after take off. Roughly one minute later, the airbus was attacked by two or more birds, perhaps two flocks but that is still undetermined. No matter, one good size bird I learned yesterday can take out a jet engine! The Airbus engines, according to the experts, are built to withstand attack from one four pound bird. Many birds weigh quite a bit more. Both the engines on this plane were attacked and failed, they still haven't found them deep in the murky Hudson. That might have been the fate of several if not all of it's passengers and crew but for a small miracle by the name of Chelsey B. Sullenberger III.

Sully, as his co workers and friends call him, has thirty years of experience flying and is a former fighter pilot. His co-pilot Jeff Silles has been with U.S. Airways for 23 years. Sullenberger also runs a safety consulting firm. Apparently no one who knows him is surprised at the skill with which he put this plane down in the water and got his crew and passengers to safety. It is a miracle he was behind the wheel of that plane. The decisions he had to make in rapid succession along with his technical skills, and courage make him a bona-fide hero.

Only one serious injury, a woman with two broken legs, is reported. It was 20 degrees outside in New York City yesterday. The water was around 40 degrees according to weather reports. Serious hypothermia was a good possibility for those passengers and rescue workers, whose rapid response was awe inspiring. A comentator actually stated that there was probably no better place to dump a jetliner in the water.

If you were a New Yorker, sitting in your Manhattan office, or looking out the window of your Queens or Bronx apartment yesterday, and saw that jetliner rapidly descending toward Manhattan, no one would blame you for having chilling and cynical thoughts. But the sight of 155 people standing on jet wings, ferries,NYFD and other boats at the ready to rescue, was enough to make the entire country stand and applaud and smile.

Someone commented to me that it was apropos of the times. This good, miraculous moment. Perhaps a sign or omen that a new era of better fortune is on the horizon. I don't know if I would go that far, but hey...miracles do happen.