Video: US Airways Flight 1549 Lands in the Hudson

The story of the landing of Flight 1549 in the Hudson River has been really powerful for me. The pilot of that flight, Chesley Sullenberger,  is my kind of hero. I'm thankful that neither a single death nor any major injuries occurred as a result of the landing, and the passengers tell a consistent tale of a calm, collected, women-and-children-first evacuation. That happened as a direct result of his cool head, his quick thinking, and a little bit of divine intervention. It could so easily have been otherwise.

At the time of the rescue, there were helicopters with video cameras all over the scene, and the rescue was pretty well documented. So why am I blogging about it now? Well, I knew it would only be a matter of time before a video of the landing surfaced, and I wanted to have something constructive to offer to my readers instead of another rehash of the events.

Here it is, courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard, unedited, and no sound track. The splashdown occurs at 2:02, and if you stick around for a couple of minutes, you can see people emerge, fall off the wing, get pulled back up onto the wing by other passengers, and eventually get picked up by the ferries.