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CNN Newsroom
Hudson Crash Survivors Speak Out
Aired January 16, 2009 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Making news right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just incredible right now that everybody is still alive.
SANCHEZ: New details about what caused this plane to go down. Accident investigators are holding a news conference.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These new engines are quieter. And that makes the environment much more conducive to a bird strike.
SANCHEZ: What to do about birds. How often does this happen?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The engine exploded. And you heard that bang. You heard some screams like that real quick.
SANCHEZ: What was going on inside the plane?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everyone was just stunned and kind of waiting for the pilot to tell us what was going to happen next.
SANCHEZ: What did they actually do when they heard the words brace for impact?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said, brace for impact. I figured that, you know, that was pretty much going to be the end of it.
SANCHEZ: Did anyone panic ever? The survivors of Flight 1549 and their incredible stories.
It's 3:00 p.m. at La Guardia, lunchtime at LAX. Your tweets, your input, your national conversation begins right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: And hello again, everybody. I'm Rick Sanchez. Here we go.
It is Friday. We have just been told that we are going to be seeing a news conference. This is U.S. Airways. They're based in Charlotte. And we're told that they're going to have a news conference any moment now. Some of the company heads are going to go to the microphone and talk to us about what their position is on this.
And maybe we may be hearing for the first time either from the pilot or perhaps be able to see him on camera. We're told that he is there in Charlotte. So we will certainly be following that for you.
Meanwhile, yesterday, at this very time, I started this program not knowing that in just a couple of minutes, we would witness one of the most heart-stopping breaking news events of 2009. Now, you know what I'm talking about. That's the picture right there. See that? That's the story and one image right there, that plane, which could easily have resulted in the deaths of 155 people, but instead all of those you see right there are alive because of the skilled flight crew.
And something in the universe that lined up to make a Hudson River emergency landing possible, it happened. And, as a result, 155 people live to see another day. We have their stories. We have their pictures.
And watch this, the amazing sounds of yesterday, that amazing day.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have an U.S. Airways airline jet in water. We have numerous people on the wings of the airplane. And like I said, we got about four or five Circle Line boats around the plane at this time. Units are jumping on Circle Line boats and heading out to the incident. Copy?
JOE HART, PASSENGER: That's really where people started to panic. Inside the plane, there were only one or two that were really kind of not knowing what to do. It's when we got outside and in the cold water, and I mean, the water was cold, within seconds, my legs were numb standing in the water. So, I'm guessing it was 30, 40 degrees. It was ugly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Division one, be advised at this time the Coast Guard is reporting they have four ferries en route and one Coast Guard ship en route.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Notify Division One (INAUDIBLE) supposed to be 146 passengers, plus five crew on that plane, total of 151, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Division One, we're getting a report that the plane is now floating past the 30th Street heliport and there's plenty of room there to land boats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All units stand by unless urgent. Scuba van, how many divers do you have on board?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As of right now, we have five confirmed divers on the rigs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The engine blew about three minutes into the flight. Smoke came out everywhere. A couple minutes later, the captain came on and said we're going to dump this plane, brace for impact, and probably brace pretty hard. And that's what we did. And kudos to him, man. He did a great job. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The pilot stated that he got all the people off the plane, onto the wing, and the pilot was dropped off by Pier 79.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have possibly 30 people who are at Pier 79, nobody seriously injured. If we could somehow get some blankets over here, everyone is sopping wet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Engine 9 is at the waterway filter, which is on 40th and 12th. We have approximately 54 passengers in this terminal. Two were taken to the hospital, nobody serious.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: We have got a couple of passengers lined up, because we want to know what it was actually like to be there. So, I'm going to be joined by Brad Wentzell. We understand we're having a problem setting him up. He's going to join us in just a little bit. He's in Charlotte.
Also, Bill Zuhoski, Bill is good enough to join us on the phone.
Bill, are you there?
BILL ZUHOSKI, PASSENGER: Yes, I'm here.
SANCHEZ: Where were you sitting?
I was in the back of the plane, I think three or four rows from the back -- 23-A was my seat number.
SANCHEZ: Well, that's interesting. Listen to this.
This is Billy Campbell (ph). He was probably one of the guys sitting right next to him. I don't know if you know him or not. This is what he said. He said: "I was sitting in the second to the last row. The lights went out. I started to smell smoke. Flight attendants made everyone tighten their seat belts. Water started to come in through the windows after we landed."
Does pretty much nail it?
ZUHOSKI: Yes, he pretty much got it right. You know, as soon as we hit impact, as soon as we hit the water, I looked down at my feet, and I could see the water coming up at that point.
SANCHEZ: If you were sitting all the way back there, that means as you're looking out the window, you're starting to see water overtaking part of the window?
ZUHOSKI: Yes.
I didn't really look out too much. People started to race to the back of the plane to try and find exit doors. And I think the weight of all the people running towards the back made the back of the plane heavy and all the water ran towards the back of the plane. And it came up pretty quick. It was up to my chest very quickly.
SANCHEZ: Listen to what Martin Sosa (ph) says. He was there with his wife and a 9-month-old son.
"Next thing we know," he says, "suddenly, all the water starts coming into the cabin." He says: "It was total chaos. I mean, people just started jumping over people and jumping over seats."
That's very different from that calmness that we have been hearing, at least we were starting to hear yesterday when people first got off the plane. Sounds like it wasn't so calm, was it?
ZUHOSKI: Well, there was a minute of complete chaos, you know? Everybody -- you don't know what to do in a situation like that. But it really was -- after about a minute or so, people really did start to calm down and move out quickly.
SANCHEZ: Here's Jeff Colojay (ph). I'm reading from what he says. He says: "About three or four minutes into the flight, I was sitting in 22-A" -- this guy was sitting almost next to you -- he says: "The left engine just blew. Suddenly fire, flames started coming out. A couple minutes after that, the pilot came on and said, you guys have to brace for a hard impact. And everyone started to be honest," he says. "I saw everyone started praying."
ZUHOSKI: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Did you pray, Bill?
ZUHOSKI: I did. I was praying. When we heard, you know, brace for impact, that's all you can think to do is pray. You think those are the last four words that you're going to hear. I was interlocked with arms with the guy sitting to my left, and we just both had our heads down praying.
SANCHEZ: One wonders at that moment what it's like to think that you might die. Did you think that?
ZUHOSKI: Yes. You know, there was a couple times, you know, we felt we were going to die for sure, you know. A lot of things go through your head. You don't really know what to feel, honestly.
SANCHEZ: Did you think you were going to die, though? And if so, what did you think about? Whom did you think about?
ZUHOSKI: Well, yes, I did think I was going to die. And you think about all those close to you. And, honestly, at least for me, I thought more about how they were feeling at the time, you know, rather than me. I was more concerned about how they're feeling. I can only imagine the fear that they were feeling from the other side.
SANCHEZ: Bill Zuhoski is good enough to join us by phone.
We thank you, Bill, for joining us.
By the way, we have Brad set up now. We're going to take a quick break here. When we come back -- there he is. He's going to be joining us and he's going to take us through what he experienced, what he felt and whether he, too, thought that he would die.
My thanks, by the way, to Bill Zuhoski.
Take a look at this, new animation that we have put together that explains what happened during this short flight from beginning to end, to going over the Hudson at only 900 feet over the G.W. Bridge. Wow.
And this show was not the first, but among the very first to tell you the story as it happened on TV. Guess who was the very first citizen journalist with this story? A Twitterer.
Yeah, baby.
We will be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back.
We have got a couple of guests who are going to be joining us to take us through this, but we are going to be talking shortly with the Twitterer, the tweep, as some would say, who tweeted to us the story and to the rest of the world.
Pretty significant development, when you consider what's going on in the world of citizen journalism.
But, first, we have also got Brad Wentzell, who is standing by. He's in Charlotte. He was there. He experienced this thing. And he's here to smile about it and tell us he's happy to be alive.
You know, I was just talking to another one of your cohorts there who was on the plane. He said he thought he might die. Did you?
BRAD WENTZELL, PASSENGER: I -- honestly, yes. I mean, there's no way to think you were not going to die. It's not every day that you're on a plane that's going to crash.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: What do you think about when you think you're going to die?
WENTZELL: I just prayed.
And I said -- you know, honestly, to be completely honest with you, I said, lord, I have not led a perfect life. Forgive me for my sins. Please get me home to my wife and daughter. If not, tell them I love them. Take care of them. I said a couple our fathers and just waited. That's all you could do, was wait.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: You know what I want to do? We have got that animation that we have prepared. And I want to go to our Chad Myers in a little bit and he's going to talk to us about it.
WENTZELL: OK.
SANCHEZ: But I want to show this. And as the plane is flying, I want you to give us a little play-by-play. You going to do that? All right?
(CROSSTALK)
WENTZELL: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: Do you have a monitor?
OK, we're leaving right now -- boy, I have flown out of La Guardia so many times. The plane goes over that part of La Guardia, and now it starts to make that big bank, and it's going be heading over the Hudson. And there we see the part of the Hudson River. Now you're going to over the Hudson. Eventually, you're going to be going over the G.W. Take it from there.
(CROSSTALK)
WENTZELL: Well, we start to work our way over the Hudson. And there was another bang that I heard. We started losing speed.
We started coming in lower, lower. I kept looking left and right thinking we were going to hit a building. And then all of a sudden, the pilot said brace for impact. We braced for impact. And this guy kissed the ground with the plane. It is amazing. This guy is the ultimate -- I know you have heard that over and over again, but whoever -- this guy saved all of our lives, 155 people, plus everybody he would have -- this plane would have killed.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: He's as good a pilot as we have ever heard of. You're absolutely right.
By the way, here's what's interesting about this story. First, you hear the impact from the birds getting sucked into the engines. That frightens you. Then you...
(CROSSTALK)
WENTZELL: Yes, that was pretty scary.
SANCHEZ: ... made the thump onto the ground and you realize you're still alive. And then you look out the window and you see water coming in. So, which point was the most frightening for you, the thinking you were going to drown or the thinking you were going to die on impact?
WENTZELL: Thinking I was going to die on impact. The thing was, there was a moment there where it was very surreal. It's almost like you stepped outside yourself. It wasn't really fear.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: These are your pictures we're looking at.
WENTZELL: I thought I would be afraid. But, for whatever reason, there was some form of a calming that came over most of the people. And apparently we all made it.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
WENTZELL: So, I'm glad to be here.
SANCHEZ: Brad, you're the best, man. I have seen you before. I have been watching you today. You have been doing a lot of interviews. And I thank you for those great pictures that you got to us and you got to the rest of the world.
Chad Myers joining us now as well.
(CROSSTALK)
WENTZELL: It's amazing.
SANCHEZ: Go ahead, Brad. Finish up.
WENTZELL: It's amazing how many calls I have had from friends.
And, to everybody out there, I want to say hi. I'm still here.
You don't realize how many people love you until you almost aren't around anymore.
SANCHEZ: And how much you love them.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: And how much you love them as well. I love the smile.
WENTZELL: I do.
SANCHEZ: Good for you.
WENTZELL: Yes. My wife told me to smile.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
WENTZELL: ... you heard that. So...
SANCHEZ: Chad Myers standing by as well.
Hey, Chad, you look at these pictures and you just wonder. And everybody's talking. You there, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Right here. SANCHEZ: Everybody's wondering about this pilot and how he was able to pull this thing off. And these guys are trained for water landings. He made a water landing. There's obviously a million things that could have gone wrong, but he made sure they didn't, and they didn't.
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: You don't really practice, though.
SANCHEZ: Yes, you're right.
MYERS: I mean, OK, you get in a simulator. But you can't really say, OK, let's take the plane into the water today and see how it goes. They left out 040 out of La Guardia like a normal takeoff, banking left, then heading back down. You want to miss all the buildings. They don't fly around Manhattan. They fly around Manhattan and then down usually on the Jersey side here of the Hudson.
At 3,200 feet, that's as high as the plane got, then it started losing altitude. And then at that point, it was almost -- I have heard some people say there were just -- there were no noises coming out of these engines at all, so almost a dead stick landing. Like, he doesn't even have control. He can't add power. He can't take power off.
But the flaps went down, slowed the plane down, and landed it as slowly as he could get it on the ground -- get it on the water. What you don't really notice, and we didn't hear anything about this, a dangerous part of a water landing, that right there. If you get -- those engines get to be sucked into that water, there can be so much torque, you can take the wings off the plane.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
MYERS: That did not happen, because as we have been hearing, he came down on the back part of the plane long enough that those engines didn't get into the water until it was just a couple miles per hour slower than it would have if it was just a flat pancake into the water.
One more thing I noticed, Rick, I think this might be the most under-told story of the day, there was no ice chunks in the river.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
MYERS: Had there been large chunks of 12-, 14-inch sheets of ice floating down the river, like there will be in a couple of weeks, the plane very well may have broken up because it did not have that nice smooth landing.
Those ice particles, those big icebergs, basically, would have been enough friction on the bottom of the plane to shear the bottom of the plane off, lose the fuselage itself on the bottom. And that plane would have gone down much, much faster than it did. And literally you see it on the side of the dock there tied up. You can't believe it's actually still relatively floating.
SANCHEZ: By the way, we're going to have a news conference. Dip into that, if you can, real quick, Rog. We have got this news conference that is going to be set up in just a little bit. There you see some of the techs setting up. We were told it was going to be 2:45. It's now 17 minutes after the hour of 3:00, still no news conference.
We are going to be hearing from officials from U.S. Airways. And as soon as that happens, we're going to take you to it.
But before we do that, I promised you this guy. So, let me bring him to you. He goes by jkrums. His real name is Janis Krums. And there he is. He is a Twitterer, I am proud to say. And he's the very first person who reported this information on the World Wide Web using his Twitter through his telephone.
In fact, he took pictures and put them out on Twitter right away.
Janis, thanks for being with us.
JANIS KRUMS, POSTED PHOTOS ON TWITTER.COM: Thanks for having me.
SANCHEZ: Congratulations.
We're looking at some of your pictures now.
KRUMS: That's the only picture I took.
SANCHEZ: That's it right there?
KRUMS: That's the one I did. And that's it.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: What was it like?
KRUMS: It was surreal.
We were pulling in to the wing to get people off. And I took one picture. And I was on Twitter as I was taking it, so I quickly posted it and forgot about it.
(CROSSTALK)
KRUMS: And I checked it a few -- 20 minutes later, when we got back on land, and there was a lot of people have seen it.
SANCHEZ: What were you doing there?
KRUMS: I was catching the ferry to go to New Jersey to get into the car and beat the rush hour.
SANCHEZ: So, were you on the ferry? Or were you still on the dock? KRUMS: No, I was on the ferry. And I was maybe a couple of minutes into the ferry ride when someone said there's a plane in the Hudson. And we looked up. I thought initially it was a Cessna or something smaller. But, once you look at it, you know it's not a Cessna. And...
SANCHEZ: What did you think when the ferry captain told you guys you were heading over there? Didn't you think, is he really going over there?
KRUMS: Well, it seemed natural at the time. We were the only ones out there. There's a plane floating with people on it. We have to do something, right?
SANCHEZ: What an amazing day.
KRUMS: So...
SANCHEZ: Tell me about this citizen journalism thing.
You know, a lot of people who aren't into it don't understand it. But it seems to guys like you and I like -- and our staff -- that this thing's really going to be catching on and it will be the future of communication. You agree?
KRUMS: I agree, definitely. It's definitely something that, you know, if you're right there, you can report on it instantly and have someone like yourself look at it within minutes, whereas -- if you can't have your crew out there.
So, it's just an incredible resource to have as another way of flattening the world.
SANCHEZ: And all it is, is communities, people in communities, communicating with one another, as opposed to the old model, which is anchorman sitting here talking to everybody...
KRUMS: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: ... and expecting everyone should listen.
KRUMS: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: My thanks to you. It's great. And I'm glad I had a chance to meet you, Janis. Way to go.
KRUMS: Thank you very much.
SANCHEZ: All right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Obviously, birds can take aircraft down, and they have. This isn't the first time.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: Could it happen to your flight? Now, this gets serious. And can anything be done to keep birds away from thousands of aircraft that are struck by them every year? That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: It's hard to believe, isn't it, that something as big as a Thanksgiving turkey brought down a jet airliner. But it did. Here's another example.
They're all over YouTube. And you know something else? It happens all the time. Look what's going on with that plane. That's called a flare-out. Just moments before it started to go up, a plane (sic) was ingested by that engine. A bird strike expert joins me. In fact, he's sitting right next to me right now, right here. He has the answers that you want to know about.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: And we welcome you back, a lot of you watching this newscast and commenting as well here on Facebook.
We have got Faith who is watching our newscast. And Faith says: "Maybe every pilot from now on should have military experience. Survival rates of plane crashes would definitely increase."
That's interesting, because we're going to have an Air Force major general joining us in just a little bit. And he's going to be talking about this, about actually being trained to do this type of maneuver. And there he is, as a matter of fact. He will be joining us in just a little bit.
But, first, let me point out somebody who is standing right next -- or sitting right next to me. This is Ron Merritt. He is a bird strike expert. And everyone's talking about bird strikes today. So, we wanted to reach out to him.
Here's the first thing I want you to do. Here's a report that we have prepared. This is our own Alina Cho, who has put this together. I want you to watch this, see if we got this right when it comes to the information that says there's 8,000, 8,000 planes hit by birds every year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It happens more often than you may think.
RONALD MERRITT, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET. ): Obviously, birds can take aircraft down and they have. This isn't the first time.
CHO: According to the FAA, birds collide with planes at least 8,000 times a year, costing the industry some $600 million. When it happens, it can be terrifying.
This video posted online shows a small plane taking a direct hit, and in this one, a jet flying through a flock. Both those planes landed safely, but sometimes the results are deadly. One group that studies bird strikes says over the past 20 years, 200 people have been killed and 200 aircraft destroyed.
MERRITT: Engines are particularly vulnerable in the fact that you can shut down the power source. Particularly of interest is when you hit large birds and you hit more than one.
CHO: The FAA requires that engines be able to withstand the impact of a bird weighing four pounds, but 36 species of birds weigh more than four pounds. Experts say engines could be made more resistant, but they'd be heavier and inefficient, and that means more fuel and more money.
MERRITT: The key is to try to manage the risk in such a way that we reduce the probability of hitting large and large flocking birds.
CHO: But bigger planes mean bigger targets and in many cases, bird populations are growing, too, which means the pilot and flight crew is likely the best line of defense.
MERRITT: It's really more a matter of training to deal with the in-flight emergency once that happens.
CHO (on camera): As for managing the risk, there's only so much you can do. We're talking about birds here. And nobody really can stop a flock from flying by an airport.
What is clear is it is common for a bird to hit a plane. But deadly accidents are rare and two or more birds bringing down both engines incredibly uncommon. Now, pilots are often trained to deal with a single engine failure, but double engine failure, minimal training because it so rarely happens.
Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ: All right.
Let's turn to Ron Merritt now.
You are hired by airports to go in there and tell them what they could possibly do about their bird problems. What can you do?
MERRITT: Well, there's a number of things.
Habitat management around airports can reduce the number of birds moving in and around the airport. So...
SANCHEZ: How do you do that? By habitat, you mean get rid of the thing which is attracting the birds?
MERRITT: Birds are like teenagers. They want three things. They want a place to eat, a place to hang out and a place to breed. So, basically eliminate those type of attractions from around an airport, loafing areas, feeding areas, et cetera, nesting areas, and you can reduce the number of birds that will use the area.
MERRITT: Well, what do you do about La Guardia? La Guardia is in an area that's kind of swampy. In fact, it's a little bit of a marsh there. So, it attracts those birds, the water fowl. You can't move the airport. Can you move the marsh?
MERRITT: Neither one. In fact, we have historically made really bad decisions about where we place airports. Historically, we have put them where land was cheap and land was flat, which was typically wetland areas and things like that.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: So, this could happen again?
MERRITT: Oh, yes, yes, it could, and probably will over time.
SANCHEZ: But wait a minute. Look, if the water's not there, if the Hudson's not there, this plane crashes into the ground...
MERRITT: Exactly. Exactly.
SANCHEZ: ... and everyone dies.
MERRITT: Most likely, yes.
(CROSSTALK)
MERRITT: What it is now, we get down to managing risk. And everybody keeps thinking, well, this is an act of nature. Well, weather is nature and we still manage to deal with the weather as well.
And part of the technology that's available now is being able to find where these birds are in the atmosphere, using radar, see when big flocks are moving across the traffic pattern, and then provide advisories and/or cancel -- or hold that flight until the flocks move by.
SANCHEZ: The same thing they do with wind shear, but do it with birds.
MERRITT: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: You know what's interesting?
Look at this comment we got from countryGal here. She is watching us right now. And she says: "In our area, wildlife people moved in to airports using guns with loads that make a lot of strange noises." And she says "no birds here."
And here's another one. Let me see if I can get to this one. This one says: "Can't we outfit the planes with engine screens or covers due to airflow issues, so, when birds get smacked, they would be knocked off the screen and not into the engines?" MERRITT: Well, there's two points here. The first one about the guns that make funny noises, those are pyrotechnic pistols that make a screaming noise or...
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Or sirens.
MERRITT: Sirens. Just an acoustic sign that harasses birds. And that works pretty well, sort of like, again, running teenagers off a parking lot. If you go out there and harass them, they will go away.
SANCHEZ: But then they will come back.
MERRITT: They will come back.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: So, what about -- what about pointing a screen on the engines; is that possible?
MERRITT: Well, there's two reasons we've investigated that over the last 20, 30 years. One is you have to have a very smooth laminar flow of air into a compressor to make a jet engine function. So...
SANCHEZ: Right.
MERRITT: ...it would create turbulence in the compressor. And the second thing is, with a screen in front of the engine, if the bird hits the screen, it's going to drive the screen into the engine, as well. So now we're chewing up birds, bones, feathers and metal screen, so.
SANCHEZ: And actually it will be more apt to (INAUDIBLE) -
MERRITT: Yes.
SANCHEZ: So really this is a problem you can only manage, but you can't stop.
MERRITT: You can't stop it. You're going to have to manage the risk the best way you can. And, again, there's technology that's going to be available and is available, using radar systems to track birds around the airport. It's just getting it implemented at commercial airports.
SANCHEZ: I never would have known that there was such a thing as a bird strike expert until I met Ron Merritt.
MERRITT: Thanks.
SANCHEZ: Thanks for being here.
I appreciate that.
MERRITT: Thanks, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Great information, by the way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This pilot...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was phenomenal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And if this guy doesn't get the recognition he needs...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, it's unbelievable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ...is the reason my daughter, my two-and-a- half has a dad and my wife has a husband.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: That pilot cut his teeth in the United States Air Force. Next, an Air Force major general who will tell you how he was trained in water landings.
Stay with us.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Look at all the fun things you learn when you Twitter. For example, let's go to the Twitter board right now. A lot of folks have been commenting on what we're talking about. Somebody's telling us that they joined Twitter just for this show. We thank you.
Somebody tells us the airport in Fort Myers, Florida has a bird dog that chases birds away before the flights take off.
Really?
Somebody says: "Teenagers are not birds."
And, finally, someone asks -- as we did earlier today, huh Michael -- "How does one become a bird strike expert?
There you go. This will guarantee you this is one of his busiest days to date -- at least in terms of taking inquiries from the media.
Joining us now is General -- I should say Major General "Hawk" Carlisle with the U.S. Air Force.
One of the big questions that people have been having today is how was he able to do this?
It certainly seems like something that would be difficult to do -- to land a plane in water that way. He, too, was in the Air Force, was the pilot. Is this something you're trained to do, General?
MAJ. GEN. HERBERT "HAWK" CARLISLE, UNITED STATES AIR FORCE: Well, good afternoon, Rick.
It's good to see you.
Yes, it is. It's a -- you know, we train for all different emergency situations. And I'm sure "Sully" got a training as an Air Force F-4 pilot and in the airlines. And it doesn't matter what kind of airplanes you fly -- whether you're flying for the Navy, Marines, Army, Air Force and certainly civilian pilots and their our airliners -- they train for all the -- all different potentialities.
And what we would say in the Air Force is that he's -- he did an incredible job.
SANCHEZ: He did.
CARLISLE: He's a tremendous pilot. The Air Force is incredibly proud of him. And the precision that he did this with is phenomenal when you think about it.
SANCHEZ: Take us through it. Take us through it, if you would. I understand -- obviously, you have to be as level as you possibly can. You don't want to be off by more than one degree, probably, as far as their -- the wings go.
But you really -- you want to hit with the tail down first, right?
CARLISLE: Yes. There's a -- and I brought a C-17. This isn't -- this isn't an A320.
SANCHEZ: That's OK
CARLISLE: It's a C-17.
But the bottom line is -- you know, once he loses engines, he's no longer got power. So his ability to put the thrust up is gone.
Now what he has to figure out is altitude and air speed to get where he can put the airplane down. And he's going to trade that altitude for air speed to keep the airplane flying and reach some point where those run out at the same time and he's gone the ground -- or in this case, on the water.
So what he has to depict -- there's an optimum speed to fly the airplane out to get the most capability to move it -- to move it to where you want to. And it glides at the best glide ratio.
So what he's trying to do is get to the point where he's on the water and he has just the right attitude on the airplane, where the nose is up just enough -- remember, the A320 has low slung wings and it's got engines below that -- so that he drags the tail across the water and starts slowing the airplane down, so that when the nose comes down -- when he gets to a speed that the nose starts to come down, he's slow enough that it doesn't hit the water hard and catastrophically break the airplane apart.
So that's the attitude piece of it -- nose up, nose down. He's got to reach that at exactly the right point.
SANCHEZ: We've a question coming in from Pierre. He's watching our show right now. He's on Facebook. And he joins us every day. And he says: "It's obvious, to me that the poise and the confidence of the pilot and crew is the reason why those people are alive. I think his actions are a testament to keeping your cool when under pressure."
Let me ask you, General, the question the way maybe one of my sons would ask you -- how did this guy not freak out?
CARLISLE: You know, it's -- it's training. You resort to training. It's like anything, it's -- if you practice it, practice it, practice it, it becomes second nature.
And flying an airplane -- and certainly in Sully's case, he's got great experience. He flew fighters in the Air Force and then flew for the airlines. He's doing everything almost by instinct. He has a feel for the airplane. You call it seat of the pants flying or stick and rudder capability. Obviously, he's a phenomenal pilot.
But he could feel the airplane and it just resorts -- his mind goes into, I've got to get this airplane down. And I'm going to resort to my training. I know what the airplane feels like and I know what it looks like and I've just got to make it look exactly like that. It's got to look perfect -- no wings, no, dip, exactly the right amount -- just like you practice it in a simulator and just like he knows he's trained to do.
SANCHEZ: And I'll tell you what, he's a real credit to US Airways...
CARLISLE: He is.
SANCHEZ: ...and a credit to the U.S. Air Force, as well.
My thanks to you, General, for taking the time to talk to us today.
CARLISLE: Thank you very much, Rick.
We're awful proud of him. He's a great -- a great man.
SANCHEZ: I appreciate it.
CARLISLE: Thanks, sir.
SANCHEZ: What was going on in the pilot's -- when the pilot's wife suddenly got that call?
You know what we mean by that call.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LORRIE SULLENBERGER, PILOT'S WIFE: Before -- the first I knew of it is he called me to say that they had had to ditch the plane in the Hudson River, that he was OK and that they believed that they had gotten everybody off and everybody was OK. And he wanted me to know that before I started hearing things on the news.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Can you imagine being on the receiving end of that phone call?
That is the wife of the first officer, Jeff Skiles, talking.
Up next, the captain's wife shares her thoughts, as well, when he called home to tell her there had been an incident -- his word -- at work.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: By the way, a quick Twitter, if we could.
Johnny, do you want to grab that?
"On the plane, how's USA's -- US Airways' stock doing today?," asks Digital Billy. "It should be through the roof. Everybody will want to fly with them from here on in."
As a matter of fact, we've checked and you're right. US Air's stock today is, in a word, thumbs up. We'll get more on that in just a little bit.
There's something else that I want to take note of today, though. I think about this because it happens every single time there's a crash -- a tragedy, a miracle of this magnitude. The word hero starts getting bantered about. Well, yesterday when this story broke on my watch, we had plenty of questions and we really didn't have a lot of answers. We were minutes into this thing. And we all watched later as survivors began telling us what happened -- their stories, their photos, their impressions.
It sounds like the crew was stellar, competent, quick-thinking, well trained, composed, poised and very much in control.
But were they heroes?
Or is that simply the first word we reach for after watching something like this in stunned amazement?
The pilot, C.B. Sullenberger, has not spoken publicly yet. But his wife, sick and tired of watching reporters on her front lawn and with busy things to do like get the kids off to school, finally decided to talk to those reporters today.
Here is her take on her husband and that word.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SULLENBERGER: You know, this is the "Sully" I know. This is -- I always knew this is how he would react. So to me, this isn't something unusual. It's -- it's the man I know to be the consummate professional. And so it's not a surprise.
Very grateful for everyone's safety. And that we were obviously very proud of dad. And that I was very surprised. You know, I -- I know flying is very safe. And when he called and said there had been an incident, you know, I thought he had, you know, run into something in the parking lot of the airport. Never in my wildest dreams...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Hmmm.
What do you think?
You can tell me on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace. Or you can also come and see this again and then tell me there at CNN.com/ricksanchez.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: This is video we're going to show you right now of the New York 1 studio. This video just came in. They were at the zoo shooting a story when they suddenly noticed that the plane was flying extremely low. So they got out their camera, they pointed it toward the sky and there they get pictures of the plane. And they notice there's something going on.
They don't go on to record as the plane continues on into the Hudson -- only the area right there. And they thought it was extremely peculiar that the plane would be flying that low. As we've reported, it was only 900 feet above the G.W. Bridge there -- the George Washington Bridge, that connects New Jersey with New York.
By the way, joining us now is one of the men who responded to this as soon as it happened. In fact, he was on the very first ferry that responded. This is John Winiarski.
He is the captain of the ferry boat.
How soon did you guys get there?
JOHN WINIARSKI, RESCUE BOAT CAPTAIN: I'd say about within five minutes after the crash.
SANCHEZ: How did you know to do that?
WINIARSKI: It was obvious that people need help out there. We were starting a shift off, so I just happened to be lucky enough to be in a position to get underway immediately and get out to the scene.
SANCHEZ: It's amazing, because we were -- I was doing the story yesterday as this first came in. And you guys were all there way before rescue officials arrived.
Are you trained with them, to help them out in a situation like this?
After all, you have more access than they do to those waters.
WINIARSKI: Yes. Well, we patrol the river. We're up and down it. We have better response times than they do. And the lucky thing is, it was right across from our work dock facility. So we were right on -- we were right on top of it. And there was two boats in service already that were on top of it. And the rest came.
SANCHEZ: I imagine those passengers must have been pretty happy to see you?
WINIARSKI: Yes, more than happy. Yes.
It's like, oh, my god, we just went down and you guys are there waiting for us.
SANCHEZ: Yes.
WINIARSKI: Yes. They were kind of shocked to see us there. They were kind of shocked that they were there.
SANCHEZ: Wow!
And, by the way, the ferry passengers -- you just took them with you, right?
WINIARSKI: Yes. Yes.
SANCHEZ: What a ride. You should have charged them extra. Unbelievable.
John Winiarski, captain of the ferry there in New York that responded to that plane crash yesterday.
My thanks to you, sir.
Angry Bob joining us in just a little bit. Now, he is a political satirist. And -- oh, my goodness. There he is. He's going to share his thoughts with us on President Bush's exit speech and ponder what it would have been like for him to be on that plane yesterday.
What's with the hat?
Don't answer that.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Welcome back.
There he is, Angry Bob. He fixed his hat, though. You looked like the Grim Reaper when we shot you the first time. It was all pointy and stuff.
ANGRY BOB, POLITICAL COMEDIAN: Yes, I know. I didn't want to scare your lovely audience with it.
SANCHEZ: Well, the audience is saying, what the hell?
Who's that on you?
ANGRY BOB: I'm reading here on Twitter: " Angry Bob looks scary there."
OK, the hat's fixed.
Hey, your thoughts on the plane crash yesterday. You're a New Yorker.
ANGRY BOB: Oh, I've got -- you know, I've got to tell you something. The whole thing just completely scared me and creeped me out.
But are we going to have to start putting geese on a terror watch list?
I mean I don't understand this. You know what, Rick, I think this was planned.
You know why?
I think the geese don't like our bedding -- the down bedding industry.
SANCHEZ: Right.
ANGRY BOB: And I think they're sending us a message, you know?
No more pillows or else.
SANCHEZ: I do have to ask you a question about George Bush, because he gave a speech yesterday. And a lot of people looked at that speech and wondered, in many ways, what it was he was talking about, especially when he made references to Iraq and Afghanistan.
What was your take on this thing?
ANGRY BOB: Well, I -- you know, a couple of things.
First, I'd like to reference a few weeks ago, when he was doing his victory lap around the world.
I mean, was he around the past eight years?
Hasn't he seen what's been going on?
(LAUGHTER)
ANGRY BOB: I mean, he's talking about sprinting to the finish and that's after he shoots all the other runners and blows up the track.
(LAUGHTER)
ANGRY BOB: And the thing that really got me it actually, a few days earlier, when he had mentioned that during the worst of the war at the White House, that there were light moments.
Light moments?
I mean funny moments during a war?
And I'm thinking, what kind of funny moments were there?
Oh, when he tried to do two things at, once like swallow a pretzel and run the country?
Or like when he hung out -- you know, him and the whole gang went to Morton's and they stuck Rummy with the bill?
Hey, that's -- I've got to tell you something, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Go ahead.
ANGRY BOB: My funny -- what my funniest part of the whole Bush administration is, when Dick Cheney shot his friend in the face.
SANCHEZ: That was the funniest?
ANGRY BOB: Yes, well, you know, according to what's going on. And, you know I've got to (INAUDIBLE)...
SANCHEZ: Well, let me ask you...
ANGRY BOB: (INAUDIBLE).
SANCHEZ: Let me stop and ask you about the next guy, because we've got -- we've got a new president.
ANGRY BOB: Oh, sure. Yes.
SANCHEZ: And, you know, you've heard about this Obama fellow.
ANGRY BOB: Oh, God. Very, very (INAUDIBLE).
SANCHEZ: Are you going to the inauguration?
ANGRY BOB: Well, you know, I've got to tell you something, I'm very happy. I think next week's going to be an historical day on Tuesday. And I'm going to celebrate it by staying in Queens. There are going to be a million -- there are going to be 10 million people going to Washington. I'm going to tell you something, the Beltway is going to be more clogged than my Uncle Schlmo's (ph) corticoid artery.
(LAUGHTER)
ANGRY BOB: And Schlmo's got Blue Cross Blue Shield, at least, Rick.
SANCHEZ: Did you hear about this story in Tampa where they have a monkey on the loose and they can't catch him and they're trying to hit him with a tranquilizer dart and they can't get him. And the problem is the dart is scaring people away, including tourists, because he -- he's a Rhesus monkey and he's throwing feces at people.
ANGRY BOB: Really?
You know what?
I think he's actually going to be...
SANCHEZ: His feces.
ANGRY BOB: Really?
He's going to be running for the Senate down there. So I think in Florida, that's how you get votes -- you throw feces at people.
(LAUGHTER)
ANGRY BOB: I mean I think it's going to work for Jeb Bush, but he's not running so...
SANCHEZ: So...
ANGRY BOB: Because people are sick of that Bush name for a while.
What do you think?
SANCHEZ: Some...
ANGRY BOB: Maybe 30 or 40 years, no Bushes?
SANCHEZ: Yes. I'm just surprised you didn't give us a Blagojevich line in there somewhere, because you always love saying that.
ANGRY BOB: Wait a minute. Hold on. Rick, Rick. Blagojevich.
SANCHEZ: There you go.
ANGRY BOB: There you go.
SANCHEZ: Angry Bob, you're the best.
My thanks to you.
We'll look for you again, same time next Friday, right here.
ANGRY BOB: You've got it.
Have a great weekend.
SANCHEZ: All right. Our political satirist, Angry Bob.
When we come back, we're going to be telling you what's going on with this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OSAMA BIN LADEN (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): To perform their personal duty of jihad and recruit the youth to join the brigades of God against the Zionist crusaders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: Osama bin Laden singing the same old song. We didn't show you this latest message this week. There's a couple of other things that blew under the radar. You'll want to see what you missed, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP FROM "BACK TO THE FUTURE," COURTESY UNIVERSAL)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait a minute.
What are you doing, Doc?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need fuel.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like the movie "Back to the Future," we may soon be picking through our garbage to fuel the family car.
TOM QUINN, E-FUEL CORPORATION: It's a crime what we throw away in our garbage cans that can be -- that are energy -- our lawn clippings, things that we throw away, can now be treated into fuel.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Tom Quinn's new invention, the E-Fuel 100 Micro Fueler, makes homemade ethanol.
QUINN: Ethanol is compatible to every combustion engine. It even works on diesels.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: It works like a washing machine, mixing sugar and yeast with water. Then it ferments for a day, followed by low heat distillation.
QUINN: Basically, you press one button and it does the rest.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Priced at under $10,000, it sounds more like a high tech version of a moonshine still. But this grain ethanol is only safe for your car to drink.
QUINN: You have a DOT-approved pump nozzle that allows you to take the hose, put it into your car and start to fill up.
UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: The price of your own personal pump may give you cause to celebrate -- about a $1.20 a gallon. But the cost could be mere pennies if you tap discarded beer and wine at restaurants and bars and at the source.
According to Quinn, it's millions of gallons of potential energy literally going down the drain. This brewery owner thinks homemade ethanol is a winning solution.
JIM STUMP, OWNER, LOS GATOS BREWERY COMPANY: Absolutely. Drink more beer and make more fuel. It sounds good to me.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Is it Friday already?
That lost and found pilot, Gaza, Israel, Steve Jobs and all the transition action in Washington.
I've only got an hour, so a lot of stories I want to tell you never make it.
Like this lady -- Wendy Brown. She enrolled in high school and tried to join the cheerleading squad. One problem -- she's 34 years old and used her daughter's name. A court in Wisconsin sent her in for mental health treatment.
A new audiotape from Osama bin Laden emerges this week -- at least it sounds like him. Nothing new on the message -- jihad, death to Israel.
What did you expect?
Moving on, the Army, trying to sign up the high tech generation, marched into a shopping mall to let potential recruits get all touchy and feely and shooty with some G.I. gadgets. They call it the Army Experience.
And Ricardo Montalban -- we didn't have time to honor him and his very cool list of TV shows and movies. He died Wednesday in Los Angeles. He was 88.
And who's no friend of Israel these days?
Evo Morales, president of Bolivia. He burnt all diplomatic bridges with Israel this week and said he wants Israel's president declared a war criminal. By the way, Mr. Morales, I'm still waiting for that interview.
How about it?
(END VIDEO TAPE)
SANCHEZ: And we have news to share with you. It's interesting, we were talking with Angry Bob a little while ago and how he loves to say the word Blagojevich in and of itself. That is, of course, the governor, Rod Blagojevich, of Chicago -- or Illinois, I should say.
We've got some news coming in on Governor Blagojevich.
Here we go. Johnny, go ahead and go over the shoulder, if we can.
CNN -- our Chicago bureau, as you see right there, has just sent me this memo. It seems to be indicating that his lawyer has quit the impeachment trial. CNN confirms the following from Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's office. Edward Genson -- that's the gentleman you've seen many times on our air. He has like a beard. The attorney for Rod Blagojevich says he will not represent the governor at his impeachment.
More to come shortly. So, obviously, a developing story that we're going to be following up on here and one that's obviously going to be of a lot of interest to a lot of folks as they watch this -- as they watch this story develop.
By the way, a lot of you had comments today about the plane story. Let's go over -- let's go over to MySpace, if we could, first, guys.
Yes, let's start with MySpace: "I keep switching channels and then when I come back, wow -- you're still on the birds. I now have a new reason to be excited that Saturday I understand soon here -- new news coverage starts on the inauguration activity."
You know, it's interesting that we've been getting that response, because a news cycle doesn't usually last just in terms of what you know. It also stretches into the period for people who maybe haven't heard the story.
But unfortunately for those of you who know it, it can get a little sometimes -- how should we say, well, repetitive.
Now, let's go over and talk to some of the folks who have been on Twitter talking about the show today. Here we go: "Do all bird strike experts look like Kenny Rogers?"
That's regarding the guy who with us a little while ago.
Regarding Bob -- Angry Bob: "This guy's great. Can we give this guy his own mini segment on your show? Angry Bob for president. And what is Angry Bob angry about?"
There you go. That's our show.
Thanks so much for being with us.
Wolf Blitzer is standing by now with "THE SITUATION ROOM."
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Thanks very much, Rick.
Happening now, we're about to hear clues to what brought down an airplane in the Hudson River. In only minutes -- minutes from now, aviation officials reveal what they know right now.
The people who survived the crash, brutal cold and icy waters possibly would not be alive if not for the fast-moving first responders.
How did they do it?
They tell us here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
And even before becoming president of the United States, Barack Obama scores his first major victory. He's here in "THE SITUATION ROOM" to talk about that in his last scheduled interview before taking office -- a CNN exclusive.
