NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot behind the famous emergency landing of Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after it struck a flock of birds, reunited in a TODAY interview with the NYPD SCUBA divers that helped in the rescue 15 years later.
The “Miracle on the Hudson” occurred on Jan. 15, 2009, when the collision – which happened 100 seconds into the flight, according to Sullenberger – caused the plane to lose all engine power.
“It turned out, we didn’t have enough altitude or speed to either return to LaGuardia, or to go across the river to Teterboro, New Jersey,” Sullenberger told Craig Melvin.
“So, I chose the least bad option, and I was very glad to have it,” Sullenberger said.
That option was the Hudson River.
Nearby, the NYPD’s SCUBA team was in a helicopter, piecing together reports of a plane going down and preparing to jump to action.
“When we got closer and we were able to read ‘U.S. Airways,’ now, we know this is a big aircraft and that had a catastrophic problem,” Sgt. Michael Hendrix said.
Sgt. Michael Delaney, SCUBA team diver, recounted his experience getting into the 36 degrees water to help a struggling woman.
“She was panicking, and I just tried to calm her down. My first initial thought was to introduce myself to her. I said ‘Hi, I’m Michael. I’m going to get you out of here.’”
Sgt. Robert Rodriguez, another diver, assumed that there were passengers still stuck on the plane and swam inside to help. Luckily, all he found was luggage.
“I went through the airplane from front to back twice, just to make doubly sure that there was no one left behind,” Sullenberger said.
“The respect for Chesley went up here, and never wavered,” Rodriguez said.
In the reunion, Sullenberger thanked the divers for all they did that day, and the team reflected on the group effort that got all 155 people on board to safety.
“It’s probably the first time, collectively, a bunch of people from different industries did a gut check and said ‘I’m going to act bravely in this moment,’” Rodriguez said.
“If we had 20 opportunities to do it all over again, it wouldn’t have gone as good as the first time we did it,” Delaney said.
And that’s why they call it a miracle.