Sullenberger Flight Survivors on Moving On

This story originally aired Nov. 13, 2009.

Millions watched the aftermath on television, but only 155 people know firsthand what really happened aboard U.S. Airways Flight 1549.

Now, for the first time since Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's heroic emergency landing in the Hudson in January, 118 of the 155 survivors tell their stories in a new book, "Miracle on the Hudson."

Read an excerpt of "Miracle on the Hudson"
Capt. Sullenberger Gets Personal

And on "The Early Show" Friday, four survivors opened up about the landing and how their lives have changed since then.

Eileen Shleffar, who was on the plane that day said when she heard the boom on the side of the plane, she called out to her dad, who she calls her "guardian angel."

"I said, 'Dad can ya help us here?'" Shleffar said, "And when we hit, I really felt like there were hands under the plane that had just stopped us from perishing."

Shleffar said in the weeks and months following she was feeling anxiety-ridden by the landing experience.

She said, "One day, someone came in my office and said, 'So how are you doing?' And I said, 'You know I'm struggling with this thing in the pit of my stomach. It's anxiety, I can't find peace in there, I can't find my happy place, and he said, 'Well you should go someplace happy, like the happiest place on earth. And I said: 'Disneyworld.'"

Shleffar went to Space Mountain, and spent three days "screaming her head off."

"I got rid that," she said. "I got rid of the hysteria, and you know what? No one knew. Everyone was screaming, and no one knew that my screams were coming from a completely different place."

Laura Zych, who was also aboard the plane, said at the time she thought she was going to die alone.

Ben Bostic, who was also on the plane said he noticed Zych at LaGuardia Airport and hoped she was on his flight.

Bostic said, "I boarded, and I got a book out, and there she was coming down the aisle, (I thought) hopefully she'll sit beside me, so just like always, she sits somewhere else and, you know, typically I'd probably never see her again."

Zych and Bostic met at the six month anniversary party of the "Miracle on the Hudson." One of the other passengers introducted Zych and Bostic to each another.

Zych said, "I walked up and we hugged each other because that's what we always do, we hug each other like we've known each other for 20 years."

Zych said on the couple's second get-together, they danced together, and now they dance together every day.

Bostic said, "No matter where we're at, whatever we're doing, we end up dancing somewhere."

Pam Seagle said the landing helped her re-examine her relationship with her family.

She said, "We're very close, however, we weren't always very good at articulating that."

Seagle said she had a long talk with her family about what might have been if she hadn't survived.

"The irony is that (my sister) passed in June very unexpectedly of a massive brain aneurism," Seagle said. "My parents had thought they had lost one daughter only to lose the other within six months almost to the day."

Seagle said she's thanked Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger recently for the gift he gave that day.

Bostic said, "For me it really starts with just extreme gratitude. I could tell Sully thank you every day of my life, especially, you know, for meeting her."

Seagle said, "When I say I'm happy to be here, I really mean it."