January 15 2009 started just like 10,000
other days literally and like 1549
initially like all those other flights
for so long was completely routine and
unremarkable for the first 100 seconds
but this very suddenly and I was aware
of it at the time became the worst day
of my life we were traveling at that
point 316 feet per second so I saw the
birds about 3 football field things
ahead but not enough time to maneuver
away from them and then they filled the
windscreen as if it were a Hitchcock
film and this this was a large flock of
large birds the species Canada geese
they weigh eight or ten sometimes twelve
pounds they have five foot or six foot
wingspans and they struck the airplane
along the leading edges of the wings
that nose and into the center the core
of both jet engines jet engines are
turbines they're finely balanced
machinery spending at tens of thousands
of revolutions per minute than having a
10-pound object or to go through each of
them in the center the core of the
engine is incredibly damaging and
disruptive immediately I could hear
terrible noises from the machinery being
damaged I'd never heard in an airplane
before I could feel terrible vibrations
I never felt them their plane before and
then
I received confirmation of what I
believed had happened when I could smell
coming into the cabin air the burning
bird odor from the engines and then the
thrust loss was sudden complete
symmetrical bilaterally both engines at
once it felt as if the bottom had fallen
out of our world and my body responded
immediately in a very normal human way
to this sudden my throwing stress I
could I was aware of that as that
happened I could feel my pulse shoot up
my blood pressure spiked my perceptual
field narrow and tunnel vision because
of this dress
I remember vividly my first three
conscious thoughts this can't be
happening having read about many
accident flights a very typical response
reader didn't different disbelief
followed immediately by this doesn't
happen to me
in other words for over four decades I
had never been so challenged in an
airplane I doubted the outcome followed
immediately by a realization that unlike
all those other flights I'd had for 42
years this one probably would not end on
a runway with the aircraft undamaged and
I was okay with that as long as I could
solve the problem and so even though
we'd never trained for this invite light
simulators of the airline it was not
possible to practice a water landing
they are programmed for the only
training we'd ever gotten for a water
landing was at the original classroom
discussion but because I had learned my
craft so well I knew by airplane in my
profession so intimately I could set
clear priorities and so I chose to do
only the highest priority items and then
I had the discipline to ignore
everything I did not have time to do as
being only distractions in potential
detriment to her performance you see I'm
also well-read and so I knew that the
neurobiology I knew that multitasking is
a myth that when we think we're
multitasking what we are that doing is
switching rapidly between tasks not
doing
well and so I chose not to try to do too
much within a few seconds by memory I
had taken the first two remedial actions
that we would eventually get to in the
checklist over a minute later over a
third of the way through the remaining
flight time but I needed those actions
to be effective immediately and not to
wait I turned on the engine ignition so
where the engines could recover they
would and I started the airplanes
auxilary power unit I knew it was only a
matter of a few minutes before our
flight paths intersected the surface of
the earth I had to choose the best
possible place for that to happen having
flown into New York many times I knew
that there were only three options there
were only two runways that might be
reachable it turned out with reaction
time they were not and the only other
place in the entire New York metro area
one of the most densely developed areas
in the planet where it might be possible
to even try landing a large jet airliner
would be the Hudson River I suspected
early on that's where we would end up
but I knew I had to try to consider at
least returning to a runway if it was
possible
I took control the aircraft made one
distress call worked for the air traffic
controller considered returning to
LaGuardia decided it was unreachable
considered trying to reach a Teterboro
Airport in New Jersey across the river
decided that was not reachable either
told the controller we're going to be
nuts and he told me later he was shocked
and disbelief and he assumed that by
choosing that path that we would all
perish and it was an agonizing 45
minutes until he found out that everyone
had survived our first Officer Jeff
Skiles couldn't have had a better
colleague that they are since in a
situation where the time pressure and
the workload were so intense we didn't
have time even to talk about what hadn't
happened and what we should do about it
he and I were able to collaborate board
lessly by knowing intuitively in this
developing crisis what we should do to
help the other based on our own long
experience had Jeff not also had 20,000
hours of flying time like I did had he
not been a captain before had he not
been so experienced he wouldn't have
known either to do that or how to do
that so he made an important suggestion
at several points in the flight he was
silently cheering me on as I made each
decision but ready to intervene to check
my performance if he thought I was
making an error I had a chance to make
only one announcement in the cabin and
before I made I knew would be the most
important PA announcement of my life
I took what was probably an extravagant
amount of time with three or four
seconds to choose my words very
carefully before I spoke I wanted to
sound countenance not agitated because I
knew that courage can be contagious and
I chose specific words for specific
reasons fortunately we have the
advantage of having a very well defined
and very concise aviation vocabulary in
which there are certain single words
that are rich with meaning brace is such
a word
it's signals to the cabin crew the
flight attendant said an emergency
landing is imminent and that they should
help the passengers avoid injury during
the landing so they'll be able to
evacuate by shouting their commands to
the passengers and in the spur of the
moment I chose another word to give the
passengers and crew in the cabin alike a
vivid image of word picture of what to
expect that without engine thrust we
were using gravity to provide the ford
motion of the airplane we were ascending
the equivalent in a hotel elevator
descending at two floors per second so I
knew it was going to be a hard landing I
just didn't know how hard because Jeff
and I had never practiced this before so
I chose the word impact to give them
that vivid image I said this is the
captain brace for impact and immediately
even through that armored cockpit door I
could hear the two flight attendants in
front Donna and Sheila and I'm sure the
rain in the back was doing the same
begin shouting their commands in unison
to the passengers brace brace brace
heads down stay down
hearing those words that day encouraged
me it comforted me to know that by
saying the few words I had but but
choosing the right words I had literally
gotten my crew on the same page and that
if I could find a way to deliver this
aircraft to the surface intact it would
float long enough for the flood attends
to evacuate the passengers and for New
York Waterway descend there ferries to
pick us out of the water and that was
critically important on such a cold day
the air temperature was 21 the water
about 38 right before the landing I
asked Jeff Skiles a question I said got
any ideas some think that was a flippant
remark but it was not at all it was just
an indication of how deeply internalized
these team skills are that I used to
teach
I was saying to him and he understood in
context exactly what I meant I've done
everything I can think of that can help
us are there any other actions that we
can take that you can think that would
help us succeed even by a fraction and
Jeff's answer was actually not and he
answered just like that not at all
because he was being in Susy under it
not because he was resigned to an
ineluctable fate far from it we were
fighting to save every life to the very
end he answered that way because he knew
we done all we could the fact that we
could have that exchange just before the
emergency landing of a lifetime it's one
of the more remarkable things about this
flight and this crew and our diligence
our dedication did never give up just
try to save every life to do everything
we possibly could and then finally as we
were approaching the water again Jeff
collaborated with me wordlessly he knew
that the final critical maneuver was for
me to try to judge it visually looking
at this featureless water terrain ahead
or depth perceptions inherently
difficult the height at which to begin
raising the nose to begin the landing to
trade some of our forward motion for a
reduced rate of descent a touchdown and
to achieve the proper slightly nose up
attitude as we touched the water so Jeff
began to call out to me airspeed and
altitude as I was looking at the water
ahead to help me judge that critical
line and we were coming down so rapidly
if I misjudge that even by a fraction we
might start too soon and get too slow
and hard or start too late and descend
into the water too rapidly in the wrong
as we hid we hit hard but the
deceleration well my rapid was uniformed
and based upon the forces that Jeff and
I felt in the cockpit has to be slowed
to the stop it was obvious that the
airplane was intact he was stable it was
floating and people were probably still
looking at that point but in the most
amazing coincidence Jeff and I turned to
each other at that moment the same time
using the same words said well that
wasn't as bad as I thought but we were
high-fiving we still had to get 155
people out of an airplane taking on
water in a river in January open the
cockpit door and shouted one word
evacuate the evacuation went fairly
quickly passengers and crew worked
together to help out an elderly woman
who had been boarded in a wheelchair
they helped a young family of four
including a mother with a nine month old
child and by the time I left the
airplane as the last one off the New
York Waterway theories were all around
us in the rescue was well underway but
it was an agonizing four hours until I
finally received word officially that
everyone was accounted for and only then
were my immediate duties completed what
everyone was safe
[Music]