Survivors describe miracle of Hudson crash

Rescue crews secure a US Airways flight 1549 floating in the water after it crashed into the Hudson River on Thursday in New York City. The Airbus 320 craft crashed shortly after take-off from LaGuardia Airport heading to Charlotte, North Carolina.Photo: AFP

This was an airplane passenger queue unlike any other -- a line across a sinking wing to escape death.
Within seconds of crash landing in the Hudson River, passengers from US Airways flight 1549 gathered on the wings, the frigid waters lapping around their feet.
Minutes earlier, the 150 passengers, including a mother with a baby, had been settling into their regular flight from La Guardia to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Then came every traveller's worst nightmare.
Both engines cut -- one of them apparently on fire -- and the pilot issued a terse instruction for everyone to brace.
Once the plane began gliding to Earth, the loudest sound was of people praying.
"There was a lot of silence at that point," said survivor Fred Berretta on CNN television. "People started praying. It was hard to take in."
The plane ploughed into the Hudson, just off Manhattan's 42nd Street.
Everyone, from President George W. Bush to astonished onlookers, praised the pilot's skill in managing that landing.
But ordinary people also performed heroic acts -- a group effort that ended with everyone, even the baby, escaping alive and few suffering serious injury.
"It went eerily quiet. No one was actually talking," passenger Joshua Peltz said on CNN.
"I opened up the door and let the woman in the exit row past me. At this time the wing was still above the water but slowly (water) started rising above. It went to about knee level."
Berretta also recalled passengers' courage, with those in the emergency rows opening the doors almost immediately. "I don't recall panic really at all. People were amazingly calm."