Downed Jet Lifted From Ice-Laden Hudson River

Downed Jet Lifted From Ice-Laden Hudson River
AP

The airliner that was piloted to a safe emergency landing in the Hudson River was hoisted from the ice-laden current and placed on a barge, and its two "black box" data recorders were sent to investigators in Washington.

Emergency workers swarmed around the barge and its battered cargo — moored next to a seawall just a couple of blocks from the World Trade Center site — on Sunday morning as federal aviation investigators met in a downtown hotel.

The aircraft was slowly lifted from the frigid water at the southern tip of Manhattan late Saturday, exposing its shredded underbelly that dropped pieces of metal as a crane maneuvered it in the darkness. There was no immediate announcement where the barge would be taken or when it would be moved.

Although the area was barricaded, the spectacle attracted dozens of Sunday morning strollers and tourists snapping pictures of the wreckage in gently falling snow.

US Airways Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, speaking to National Transportation Safety Board investigators Saturday for the first time, said he made a split-second decision to put the airliner down in the river rather than risk a "catastrophic" crash in a populated area of New York City or New Jersey after a collision with birds shut down both engines.

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http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2009/jan/17/ntsb-right-engine-still-attached-miracle-flight/

This should be a lesson to King Obama: empty suits don't count--experience, humility, and competence do.