Many passengers rushed toward the back, thinking that was where the emergency exits were, Mr. Zuhoski said, but that part of the fuselage seemed to be sinking, and flooding, faster. “I started to get, you know, close to my neck underwater. I just thought I was going to drown right there.”
“We were in a little shock, we didn’t know what happened. But once we approached it, we started pulling people out and tried to work as a team. Everyone involved was just incredible, being a team, a big team. We were pulling people out, getting them jackets, and trying to help them anyway we could.”
“I was on the phone right when someone said a plane went into the Hudson and I looked up and sure enough. I took a quick snapshot and then I forgot about it. And I was on Twitter so I posted it online, and it just exploded from there.”
New York Times’ City Room rounds up the coverage here with lots of links to outside media.
US Waterways captain Mohammed Gouda on Good Morning America
“I actually rescued one lady from the water. She slipped from the wing and she started drifting with the current and I saw her and I started aiming toward her to pick her up by the rescue ladder. And one of the divers jumped from the helicopter and swam over to her, and he grabbed her, went there, and one of my deck hands, her hands were freezing, she couldn’t speak out or anything. … I give credit to my deck hands … especially Jose Torres and Greg Pages … They had to go down onto the water, lifting the lady over their shoulder and climb up the ladder and help her. … It’s what we have to do.”
Kottke.org’s set of links to news coverage, video and pictures.
Chelsey B. “Sully” Sullenberger: Hero commercial airline captain, former Air Force fighter pilot, safety consulting firm manager … Facebook fan club magnet.
Last-row passenger Irena Leshena, who was sitting next to a woman who said she was afraid of flying and wanted the window shade down during takeoff. From GMA:
“Actually when the plane was going down, when we realized it was going down, she ended up being the one who’s calming me and the other passengers sitting on the other side of her. Telling us ‘Girls, it’s gonna be OK, it’s gonna be OK. I’m the one who’s scared of flying.” … We were all holding hands. It was just amazing.”
The man paddled through the 36-degree waters of the Hudson River all the way to the banks of the New Jersey shore, where ambulances were waiting. The 40-something-year-old was “very cold, very, very cold” and disoriented after his 15-minute swim, said Dr. Alvaro Alban of the Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, but expected to recover.
Update: The NY Post excerpt was later removed from the newspaper’s website, and although the URL stayed the same no editor’s note was attached to note the correction/retraction. Here’s the section posted in its place:
One passenger decided to take matters into his own hands and swim to shore. The man paddled jumped into the 36-degree waters of the Hudson River and tried to swim to the shore but was picked up by one of the boats rescuing the survivors.
Lieutenant C.K.Moore of the U.S. Coast Guard, on FOX 5:
The drivers for these boats, and their crew that assisted, they were awesome. We can’t say how appreciative how appreciate of them we are.
