"In the Event of a Water Landing" - Miracle on the Hudson (January 15, 2009)

It was shortly after 3:30 on January 15, 2009, a bone chilling Thursday afternoon when I heard about the accident.  I had just returned home from the gym where I had done a weight routine for backand shoulders (I was out of work at the time).  Checking my e-mails I saw a New York Times News Alert reporting that a plane had "landed" in the Hudson River.  I assumed it was a small private plane; however, after reading that it was a passenger jet I wondered how many had died (it brought to mind a plane that crashed into Jamaica Bay upon takeoff from LaGuardia in March 1992 that resulted in the drowning of 27 passengers). 

 

I immediately tuned to New York's cable news channel NY1 for further details and was shocked to see an intact USAirways plane surrounded by boats and hear the remarkable news that there were no fatalities!  If I hadn't had a massage scheduled for 4:30 I might have walked over to the river to see the plane float by.  

 

 

  

In speaking with friends over the next few days I attributed the miraculous landing to the aura of positive energy created by Barack Obama's upcoming inauguration.  I joked that if this accident had happened the year before while George Bush (and his eight years of bad karma) was still in office the plane would have gone directly to the bottom of the river.  I thought it fitting that this "miracle on the Hudson" dominated the news cycle, pushing from the headlines Bush's televised farewell address to Congress that evening.

 

If you still haven't had your fill of this inspiring story you may find the first-hand accounts told in Miracle on the Hudson: The Survivors of Flight 1549 Tell Their Extraordinary Stories of interest.