NTSB: Both Engines Missing In Hudson Crash
Federal investigators say both engines on the US Airways jetliner that made an emergency landing in the Hudson River are missing.
Kitty Higgins of the National Transportation Safety Board said Friday that police divers are using sonar to search the river for wreckage from the engines.
Other crews are rigging up the aircraft in preparation to be pulled from the river tomorrow morning. The plane will be placed on a barge and moved to a secure location for further investigation.
Authorities are also working to recover the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the tail section of the airplane.
It is not known if the engines separated on impact or detached after the emergency landing, CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.
Experts say it's not uncommon for engines to break apart from planes after bird strikes, because of the severe vibration brought on in such incidents.
This somewhat complicates the investigation in that the NTSB will need to examine each engine for signs of bird strikes to confirm the theory that birds caused a double engine failure, reports Orr.
Higgins outlined the NTSB's plans to interview the pilots, in-cabin flight crew, air traffic controllers and some passengers over the next several days. Some of those interviews are already underway, she said.
She added, "We are working with both with the FBI and the city and others to retrieve all video evidence that might have been captured in various kinds of cameras and recorders - up and down the river."
Higgins said she was aware of the widespread reports of the crash being caused by bird strike, but would not speculate on the crash until the investigation has taken place.
"If in fact there was any kind of damage as a result of birds being ingested, my understanding is that will show up - the forensics will help tell us that - so, it's a very important piece of the puzzle," she said.
Whatever happened, it's increasingly clear that the pilots - facing a double-engine failure at a critical moment in flight - made all the right moves and the key split-second decisions to ward off catastrophe, Orr reports.
The plane began dropping over the Hudson River losing altitude, bleeding off speed as it crossed 900 feet above the George Washington Bridge. Just 300 feet above the water and still traveling at 176 mph, the pilots raised the nose, preventing a wing or engine from catching the water first and causing the plane to cartwheel, Orr reports.
Water landings are rare - and dangerous. Only a few commercial flights have ever deliberately ditched. In 1996 a hijacked Ethiopian Airlines jet tried to land on the Indian Ocean. Two-thirds of the people on board were killed.
However, there are other successful ditchings on record. In 1968, a Japan Air Lines DC-8 splashed down in San Francisco Bay. All of the more than 100 passengers and crew members survived. The plane - after more than $4 million in repairs - was even able to return to service.
Meanwhile today, many of the 155 people aboard recounted survivor stories and the plane's pilot was hailed as a hero.
Pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III was in good spirits and showing no outward signs of stress from the ordeal, a pilots union official said. His wife on Friday said he was "a pilot's pilot" and called talk of him being a national hero "a little weird."
President Bush called Sullenberger to thank him for saving the lives of the passengers. White House press secretary Dana Perino said Mr. Bush effusively praised him for his skill in bringing the plane to an emergency landing and he commended Sullenberger, a onetime Air Force pilot, for his bravery and heroic efforts.
"It's still pretty surreal. It's amazing to be sitting here," passenger Bill Elkin, who sat in row 18 of the downed plane, told CBS' The Early Show Friday.
Along with fellow crash survivor Eric Stevenson, the two men described hearing a "series of thuds" shortly after takeoff. Stevenson, who was sitting near the wing of the plane, said he could see a flock of birds, but figured the plane would simply plow through them without incident.
But that did not happen.
As the plane descended toward the Hudson River, Stevenson pulled out a business card and scribbled a quick note addressed to his mother and sister, Jane. "I love you," it read.
Mark P. Hood, of Charlotte, N.C., said said he felt a jolt ripple through the jet as though a baseball bat hit the engine close to the George Washington Bridge.
"I think everyone was holding their breath, making their peace, saying their prayers," Hood said Friday.
"When we hit the water, as soon as we hit I realized we'd survived. I grabbed (the passenger sitting next to him) and said, `We made it. We made it."'
National Transportation Safety Board investigators will now focus on recovering the black box from the plane and interviewing the crew about the accident - apparently caused by birds that slammed into the plane's two engines.
The Airbus A320, built in 1999, was tethered to a pier on the tip of Lower Manhattan on Friday morning - about four miles from where it touched down. Only a gray wing tip could be seen jutting out of the water near a Lower Manhattan sea wall.
Crews of NYPD divers went underwater Friday to inspect the belly of the plane to make sure it was stable enough to lift and secure a bed of ropes underneath it. Police and emergency crews also pulled about 15 pieces of carry-on luggage, the door of the plane, sheared pieces of metal and flotation devices from the water.
Arnold Witte, president of the Donjon Marine salvage company, said it wasn't clear whether the plane would be pulled out in one or several segments, or whether it could be raised on Friday.
"We want to get the plane recovered as soon as possible but we want to do it a safe way," NTSB spokeswoman Kitty Higgins said.
Higgins said one challenge will be hauling the plane out of the water without causing it to break apart.
Sullenberger and co-pilot Jeff Skiles and crew have become instant heroes for guiding the plane to safety and safely evacuating the passengers.
Lorrie Sullenberger and her two daughters emerged from her Danville, Calif., home Friday and called her husband "a pilot's pilot" who "loves the art of the airplane."
She said hearing her husband's story "was really a shock. ... My husband said over the years that it's highly unlikely for any pilot to ever have any incident in his career, let alone something like this."
KPIX Interviews Mrs. Sullenberger
She called the talk of Sullenberger being a national hero "a little weird." When her two daughters went to sleep Thursday night, "I could hear them talking, `Is this weird or what?"'
James Ray, a spokesman for the U.S. Airline Pilots Association, said he spoke with Sullenberger on Friday and described him as being "in good shape physically, mentally and in good spirits."
"He was just very calm and cool, very relaxed, just very professional," Ray said.
Captain John Cox - a former colleague of Sullenberger at U.S. Airways, echoed that sentiment.
"He personifies everything you ask out of a professional airman. He's very cool under pressure, he's highly trained, he takes it very seriously," Cox told Orr. "It took a consummate professional like Sully Sullenberger to do this well, and he and his crew did."
Ray said the flight crew was resting and likely would meet with investigators later Friday or Saturday. He said the crew has been asked not talk to the press about the accident until after the NTSB investigation is complete.
Sullenberger, 57, of Danville, Calif., is a former Air Force fighter pilot who has flown for US Airways for 29 years. He also runs a safety consulting firm.
At a City Hall ceremony to honor those who came to the aid of the stranded passengers, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Sullenberger's actions "inspired people around the city, and millions more around the world."
Bloomberg planned to present the pilot with the key to the city.
US Airways chief executive Doug Parker, who attended the ceremony, declined to address the investigation. But he expressed gratitude "for the way the people of New York City and the surrounding areas pulled together to help the passengers and crew of Flight 1549."
The crew, he said, "are safe and doing well."
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said there was no immediate indication the incident was "anything other than an accident."
It was a chain of improbability. Birds tangle with airplanes regularly but rarely bring down commercial aircraft. Jet engines sometimes fail - but both at once? Pilots train for a range of emergencies, but few, if any, have ever successfully ditched a jet in one of the nation's busiest waterways without any life-threatening injuries.
"We had a miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a miracle on the Hudson," Gov. David Paterson said.
If the accident was hard to imagine, so was the result: Besides one victim with two broken legs, there were no other reports of serious injuries to the 155 people aboard.
US Airways Airbus A320, bound for Charlotte, N.C., took off from LaGuardia Airport at 3:26 p.m. Less than a minute later, the pilot reported a "double bird strike" and said he needed to return to LaGuardia, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
Passengers quickly realized something was terrifyingly wrong.
"I heard an explosion, and I saw flames coming from the left wing, and I thought, `This isn't good,"' said Dave Sanderson, 47, who was heading home to Charlotte from a business trip.
Then came an ominous warning from the captain: "Brace for impact because we're going down," according to passenger Jeff Kolodjay, 31.
Onshore, from streets and office windows, witnesses watched the plane steadily descend off roughly 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.
"I just thought, `Why is it so low?' And, splash, it hit the water," said Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The Associated Press, who watched the water landing from the news organization's high-rise office.
The 150 passengers and five crew members were forced to escape as the plane quickly became submerged up to its windows in 36-degree water. Dozens stood on the aircraft's wings on a 20-degree day, one of the coldest of the winter, as commuter ferries and Coast Guard vessels converged to rescue them.
"You saw people in life rafts, people sitting on the plane, people standing on the plane. It was very surprising. They were very calm. They were really calm, really disciplined," Circle Line General Manager Andreas Sappok told CBS' The Early Show.
"They were cheering when we pulled up," Capt. Vincent Lombardi said. "People were panicking. They said, `Hurry up! Hurry up!"'
Paramedics treated at least 78 patients, many for hypothermia, bruises and other minor injuries, fire officials said.
From 1990 to 2007, there were nearly 80,000 reported incidents of birds striking nonmilitary aircraft, about one strike for every 10,000 flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Agriculture.
The Hudson accident took place almost exactly 27 years after an Air Florida plane bound for Tampa crashed into the Potomac River just after takeoff from Washington National Airport, killing 78 people. Five people on that flight survived.
On Dec. 20, a Continental Airlines plane veered off a runway and slid into a snowy field at Denver International Airport, injuring 38 people. That was the first major crash of a commercial airliner in the United States since Aug. 27, 2006, when 49 people were killed after a Comair jetliner took off from a Lexington, Ky., runway that was too short.