Rescue in the Hudson

NY Times:

The police divers found two women, going limp, with minutes to live in the frigid waters between New York and New Jersey.

“They were lethargic,” said one of the divers, Detective Michael Delaney. “They were no help whatsoever. Their extremities were frozen cold.”

He and the other diver, Detective Robert Rodriguez, shoved one of the women aboard a boat with the help of workers on board. Detective Delaney soon helped the other woman aboard as well.

That was the scene in the minutes after US Airways Flight 1549 slid into the Hudson River on Thursday afternoon after the crew reported that the plane had struck a flock of birds shortly after leaving La Guardia Airport.

For a moment after the water landing, it was a picture of eerie calm, the airplane floating on its belly in the center of the river near West 48th Street under a bright sky. A witness in a penthouse apartment called it a perfect landing, as if on cement.

But very soon the water was churned by an ad hoc flotilla of boats and ferries flying the flags of almost every city, state and federal agency that works the waters around New York City. They sped toward the slowly sinking jet, a rescue operation complicated by river currents that kept dragging the plane south, as its passengers climbed aboard the wings to await help.

The rescue began in the airplane itself, among the passengers. One passenger, Jeff Kolodjay, 31, said he and others helped the women and children off the plane and onto ferries. “There was a lady that was trying to crawl over,” he said. “She had a baby on her shoulder.”

The plane’s pilot walked the aisles of the cabin twice to ensure no one was left behind before he exited, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a news conference.

Vessels from the New York Police and Fire Departments and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey worked with New York Waterway ferries, which sent 14 boats, and the Coast Guard in the rescue. “We sent as many boats as we had,” said Alan Warren of New York Waterway.

The operation was not without improvisation: Four New York police officers commandeered a Circle Line boat picking up tourists and commuters at 42nd Street and hurried to the jet. Two officers stayed on the ferry and tied themselves to two detectives, John McKenna and James Coll, who stepped onto the wing and helped people onto rescue boats, the police said.

The divers were at Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn when the call came over the radio of an airplane down.

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There is more.

Sometimes it is hard to remember that New York is made up of caring people. But like 9-11, there is a spirit there that is eager to lend a hand when they see lives at stake. It is times like these that you find that despite a brusque personality there are people there ready to rescue those in trouble. This is a well written story.

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