By John Doyle, Reuven Fenton, Joshua Tanzer and Lukas I. Alpert
The New York Post
 AP Photo/Steven Day Airline passengers wait to board boats to be rescued on the wings of a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner that safely ditched in the frigid waters of the Hudson River in New York, Thursday Jan. 15, 2009 after a flock of birds knocked out both its engines. All 155 people on board survived. |
NEW YORK — Help was coming — ferries, firefighters, cops, dinghies and tourist boats — but one survivor of US Airways Flight No. 1549 decided to take matters into his own hands and swam to shore.
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.
The unidentified man is just one of the miracle 155 survivors of the frightening crash-landing, a group that included a 9-month-old baby and an 85-year-old woman.
It was nearly a horrific disaster — survivors said the flight to Charlotte, NC, had barely gotten off the ground at La Guardia when it became obvious something was terribly wrong.
“We took off and the engine blew,” said Jeff Kolodjay, 31, of Norwalk, Conn., who was headed to a golf retreat with five friends.
“Then fire started blowing out of the left engine pretty hard.”
Kolodjay, whose wife is pregnant, didn’t panic.
But he didn’t know the plane had struck two flocks of birds, knocking out both engines, and he was in for the flight of his life.
“I heard a loud boom, and then we dropped about 100 feet,” he said. “It was really scary.”
Kolodjay said before he knew it, the plane was in the river — and the river was in plane.
“The plane filled with water pretty quick,” he said.
“But everyone remained calm. We all got off in a calm manner. It was organized chaos.”
Once outside, Kolodjay said he was faced with frigid temperatures and swirling waters.
“Women and children got off first,” he said.
The passengers were very orderly - despite the chilling circumstances.
“We were all walking in a straight line. Then I just jumped in — I stepped into a raft. It was very cold,” he said.
He was later ferried back to shore, where he stood soaked from the knees down. He was stunned that everyone aboard survived.
“The pilot did a hell of a job to make sure everyone survived,” he said. “I can’t thank him enough.”
Beth McHugh, 64, of Charlotte, said the sound of the engine blowing out was “a loud pop.”
“I knew we were going to crash — the question was how close to the buildings we were. We knew we were over the river,” she said.
McHugh said crew members began to direct people to “put heads down, cover your heads, put your arms over your heads and your feet flat on the floor.
“The pilot came on after he had assessed what had happened and said, ‘Prepare for impact.’ ”
She said she braced herself mentally.
“I prayed, I prayed. I kept thinking to myself I never got to tell my family I love them every day. It’s something we should all do,” she said.
The plane smacked into the water.
“We all jolted sideways and frontwards and water started coming in right by my feet,” McHugh said.
She could feel the water exceptionally well — the impact had knocked her shoes off.
McHugh had previously survived a plane getting hit by lightning, and couldn’t believe this second near-tragedy.
“I thought today was not my day,” she said. “It turned out it was my day.”
Dave Sanderson, 47, of Charlotte, said, “I looked down and I saw some flames coming out from under the wing.
“You saw the New York skyline coming closer and closer, and we were coming down faster and faster.”
More frightening sights would come after the plane was in the water — one passenger was out on the wing in the cold holding her 9-month-old son, and having problems getting to safety.
“She was out on the wing with her baby,” Sanderson said. Rescuers on a lifeboat were struggling to convince her to throw the child a short distance to them.
“They kept saying, ‘Throw the baby! Throw the baby!’ After about 30 seconds, she did throw the baby, and then another man threw her into the lifeboat,” Sanderson said.
Doctors said another passenger suffered internal injuries helping a young child.
It’s unclear if the man was the child’s father, but a man with a limp escorted a 4-year-old girl out of Jersey City Medical Center, along with a woman in a wheelchair and her 9-month-old son last night.
An 85-year-old woman was believed to be the oldest of the survivors - and she was completely uninjured, said her son. Drew Palmer.
“She’s tough,” Palmer said of his mom Lucille.
She’d been traveling with her daughter, Diane Higgins.
“They got her off right away,” he said.
“I’m just very grateful. It’s a miracle. There had to have been some angels helping them out.”
While a few victims suffered fractures and neck injuries — most were treated for symptoms related to hypothermia.
“On initial assessment, they don’t have any traumatic injuries. They appear mildly hypothermic. We are getting all their temperatures and recording them. It’s a bad day to have this happen,” said Dr. Chris McCarthy of St. Vincent’s Hospital.
The survivors brought there seemed dazed but thankful to be alive.
“All things considered, I have been better,” said one man as he was wheeled in.
“I don’t even remember how long I was in the water.”
Passenger Kevin Anton said he’d planned for a much different evening — a nice dinner at home in Tennessee after a connecting flight in Charlotte.
He recalled the bang of the engine as “more like a thud.”
When the pilot said get in the brace position, he thought, “Oh, s- - -.”
Passengers quickly came to each other’s aid.
“Everyone was pretty calm. There was a young guy in front of me who raised his voice and said: ‘Everybody remain calm and we’ll get through this!’ ” Anton recalled.
“No one panicked. There was one little girl who was crying but that was only because her dad was holding on to her hard,” he said.
“There was no pushing or shoving — just a general feeling that we had to get our butts in gear.”
By the time Anton made it to the forward door, “there was a life raft right there. The ferries were right there.”
Brent Cimin, an accountant from Queens, said he was going to Charlotte for a wedding, but not feels fortunate just to be alive.
“I just thank God. It was crazy. Everybody was trying to help everybody out,” he said.
Cimin said he still plans on making the wedding.
Asked if he was going to fly, he said. “Not a chance.”
All of the passengers were united in their praise for the pilot.
“He was phenomenal,” echoed Long Islander Joe Hart, a salesman with investment firm ING.
The landing “threw you into the seat ahead of you. Both engines cut out, and he actually floated it into the river,” he added.
Hart said he waited out on the wing of the plane, with others, as the water level rose from his knee to his waist.
“Most of the panic occurred while we were out on the wings or in the water, and the ferry boats were coming.” But, he added, “I couldn’t believe how fast they showed up. They were right there to pick us up.”
“I knew I was safe,” he said. “The big guy upstairs didn’t want me.”
He even joked that there could be an upside to the experience.
“I’m certain this will get me an upgrade on my next flight!”
Additional reporting by Austin Fenner, Aliyah Shahid, Stephen Nessen, Tim Perone , Carolyn Salazar and Dareh Gregorian.