US Airways Jet Crashes In Hudson River

CBS/AP) A US Airways plane has crashed into the Hudson River, sending passengers fleeing for safety in the frigid waters.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown says the US Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport enroute to Charlotte, N.C., on Thursday when the crash occured in the river near 48th Street in midtown Manhattan.

The FBI said there is no information that the plane crash was terrorism-related.

Brown says the plane, an Airbus 320, may have been hit by birds.

According to FlightAware, which tracks flights, the aircraft was airborne less than 6 minutes, the maximum altitude was 3,200 feet before beginning its descent, reports CBS News.

"I just thought, 'Why is it so low?' And, splash, it hit the water," said witness Barbara Sambriski, a researcher at The Associated Press.

The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows. Rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane. Several boats surrounded the plane, which appeared to be slowly sinking.

New York City firefighters are responding to the crash. It was not immediately clear if there were injuries.

"I saw what appeared to be a tail fin of a plane sticking out of the water," said Erica Schietinger, whose office windows at Chelsea Piers look out over the Hudson. "All the boats have sort of circled the area. ... I can't tell what's what at this point."

Am I right in thinking this isn't the first time this has happened?

Look at those pictures!! Thear wore 151 souls on the plane!!

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Yes there was other i know about , similar weather , went down in the potomoc river , not so many got out of that one tho , and some died from the cold after escaping the plane...You might remember the dramatic rescue of a female fight attendant by helicopter from the freezing river...i think it might have crashed due to iceing on the wings but i can,t be sure....It looks like everybody made it out ok from the latest crash , good job by the pilot....

There wore 151 souls on the plane!!

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Caused by a birdstrike taking out two of the engines it seems....or so it said in the report i read...this is a bit tricky , as it only has two engines to begin with...If this report is accurate the pilot would have found himself with zero power at a time when he needed maximum power....I reckon he ought to get a medal for getting it down in one piece , hitting water in an aircraft is not unlike hitting concrete , the guy did well...!!!

wow. it looks like everyone survived. good job by the pilots.

The Airbus 320 uses V2500 Engines they are very reliable with a good record . I work for a Jet engine manufacture and one of the FAA requirements is to test the engines for bird strikes / yes birds can do allot of damage ! but the two engine planes are designed to fly on one engine incase one fails , then the pilot will proceed to the nearest airport for landing , however in this case it appears that he hit a flock of birds and both engines lost power ! This is rare but Murphy's law always shows us ! No one was hurt so this is a lot better than the tragedy it could have been .

Hats off to the pilot, that was some amazing flying.
Everybody would be gone if it werent for his quick thinking.
That plane could just as easily crashed into a residential area.

I read that the pilot was an experianced glider pilot , this might have made the crucial difference to the outcome....As far as i am aware nobody has ever put a commercial airliner down on water without any casualties , the speed , the angle , everthing has to be perfect or you get lots of pieces of aircraft scattered over a wide area and lots of dead people....As well as the remarkable skill of the pilot , luck had a part in this too , if the aircraft hadn,t been high enough to give the pilot a bit of time to choose where he was going to put down , and that river hadn,t been close enough , then the outcome would probably have been very different....I hope the pilot gets a medal for this , he deserves it....