"Miracle on the Hudson" passengers reflect on 15 years since dramatic water landing: "It changes your DNA, totally"
NEW YORK -- It's been 15 years since the "Miracle on the Hudson," one of the most remarkable piloting feats in American history, when Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger landed a packed jet on the river, saving 155 lives.
Barry Leonard and Ian Wells recently returned to the scene and shared their incredible stories of survival.
"I'm just so blessed to be here, honestly," Leonard said.
"I was a college student. Now I've been able to build a life, build a business. I'm so incredibly grateful," Wells added.
On a cold day in January 2009, Flight 1549 out of LaGuardia Airport struck birds shortly after takeoff.
"Our first indication of trouble was the plane all of a sudden just started shaking. It was like a boom," Leonard said.
"What was the scariest part, it was silent ... and it sounds like a clicking sound ... like you're turning over on a car. And I immediately look out and I say the engines are off," said Wells.
"The captain took the plane and just started going down like a roller coaster. And at that point, I was like, yeah, I'm going to die," Leonard added.
"We make this hard left turn, and all I see is building, building, buildings," added Wells. "And I see us going down, and I say oh my God, we're going to go into the river."
Sullenberger told air controllers he wasn't making it back to LaGuardia.
"There was one announcement and that was, 'This is the captain, brace for impact,'" Leonard said.
"Passengers in the middle seat, he grabs my hand, interlocks over the woman at the window, and he starts praying," said Wells.
The plane hit the water at some 160 miles an hour. Incredibly, everyone on board made it out.
Leonard wound up in the hospital with a cracked sternum, but told everyone back then how a crew member gave him the shirt off his back.
"People were saying great job landing the plane, and I was like, I didn't land the plane," he said with a laugh.
Wells was one of the last few to escape the waterlogged fuselage.
"I look out, everybody's standing on the wing. There's no room to get out there. I would have to essentially push somebody out of the way," he said. "And the pilot comes and says 'Hey there's room in the left life raft."
Fifteen years later, Leonard says he literately became a new person that day.
"It changes your DNA, totally. I'm a different person now than I was back then, without a doubt," he said.
Wells eventually got on another plane to go back to school. The guy next to him wanted to know why he was so nervous.
"I go, 'You know the plane that landed in the river a couple days ago?' He goes 'Of course,' and I say I was on it. He goes, 'You know what, I am so happy I'm sitting next to you now ... nobody gets in two plane crashes in one week.'"
Leonard now has a drawing to remind him of what everyone did that day.
"It's a picture of the plane with the people on the wings and everything, in the hands of God underneath it," he said. "I believe that it was the crew, it was the first responders, it was the passengers working together. But I think it was fate, too. I think God really helped us with that."
Leonard, now retired, has a grandchild named Hudson.
Join CBS New York's Dick Brennan and Marcia Kramer for a firsthand look at how the Miracle of the Hudson unfolded in our streaming special at 7 p.m. on CBS News New York.
