Captain Sully reunites with NYPD diving crews who saved passengers floating in freezing river 15 years after M – Daily Mail

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Captain Sully reunites with NYPD diving crews who saved passengers floating in freezing river 15 years after Miracle on the Hudson plane landing

  • Captain Sully reunited with the scuba divers that helped him rescue his passengers 15 years ago
  • Sullenberger, 72, had to make an emergency landing on the Hudson River after hitting a flock of birds just 100 seconds into his journey in 2009
  • NYPD scuba divers and Captain Sully were the heroes in what has since been dubbed ‘the Miracle on the Hudson’ 

By Martha Williams For Dailymail.Com

Published: | Updated:

Captain Sully finally reunited with the scuba drivers who helped him rescue his passengers when US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River in 2009. 

It’s been 15 years since ‘the Miracle on the Hudson’ – when Captain Sullenberger’s plane struck a flock of birds and had to make an emergency landing. 

Chesley Sullenberger, 72, had only been in the air for 100 seconds when he had to make a quick decision on how to save his passengers without enough time to land safely in New York or across the river in New Jersey

‘It turned out we didn’t have enough altitude or speed to either return to LaGuardia or to go across the river to Teterboro, New Jersey,’ he told NBC’s TODAY.

After choosing the brave option to land on the Hudson River – it is thanks to the rescue efforts of Captain Sully and the NYPD Scuba Team that every single passenger on the flight survived the dramatic incident. 

It’s been 15 years since ‘the Miracle on the Hudson’ – when Captain Sullenberger’s plane struck a flock of birds and had to make an emergency landing.

Sullenberger, 72, had only been in the air for 100 seconds when he had to make a quick decision on how to save his passengers without enough time to land safely in New York or across the river in New Jersey

Captain Sully finally reunited with the scuba drivers who helped him rescue his passengers when US Airways Flight 1549 landed on the Hudson River in 2009

‘I chose the least bad option, and I was very happy to have it,’ Sullenberger said. 

Alarmed New Yorkers called 911 to report seeing a plane on fire crashing down over the city.

NYPD’s Scuba Team used the emergency calls to piece together where the plane was headed and realized that it was plummeting towards the Hudson River.

The Scuba Team’s chopper flew past the Empire State Building and couldn’t believe their eyes as they witnessed first hand the flight land in the middle of the freezing cold body of water. 

The river temperature was an extremely chilly 36 degrees – so the Scuba professionals knew they had to act fast.   

‘When we got closer and we were able to read ‘US Airways,’ now we know this is a big aircraft that had a catastrophic problem,’ said diver Michael Hendrix. 

It was a very impactful moment for Captain Sully to reunite with the dive team who played such an important role in the rescue 15 years after the miracle

‘I went through the airplane from front to back twice just to make doubly sure that there was no one left behind,’ Sullenberger said

Detectives saw a woman in the water and rushed to her rescue. ‘She was panicking,’ he said. ‘And I just tried to calm her down. My first initial thought was to introduce myself to her. I said, “Hi, I’m Michael. I’m going to get you out of here.”‘

The divers were worried there were remaining passengers trapped on the sinking plane, so they waded through the aircraft in search of stragglers. 

‘When I went in the plane and I started swimming a bit, I was running into objects that were submerged that I thought were bodies, but it was, in fact, luggage,’ detective Robert Rodriguez said. 

Luckily – Captain Sully was adamant that no mad got left behind. 

‘I went through the airplane from front to back twice just to make doubly sure that there was no one left behind,’ Sullenberger said.

It was a very impactful moment for Captain Sully to reunite with the dive team who played such an important role in the rescue 15 years after the miracle.   

‘If we have 20 opportunities to do it all over again – it wouldn’t have gone as good as the first time we did it,’ diver Michael Delaney said. 

TODAY’s Craig Melvin pointed out that whenever Captain Sully discussed the dramatic rescue he always says ‘we’ not ‘I’ because he is appreciative of the divers who made the rescue possible. 

‘I had some fear in the helicopter that day, but I said ‘this is what you’ve been tasked to do, so swallow it,”‘ Rodriguez shared.

‘A lot of first responders from that day pitched in to make it their mission to save every life. And fortunately we did,’ Sullenberger said .

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