U.S. Airways plane down in Hudson River
 

Check CNN.

No report yet if any injuries or fatalities. Plane appears to be in one piece, rescue craft on hand.

Air temp 21˚F, water temp 43˚F.

They were bound for Charlotte NC..

Airbus 320 enroute from La Guardia to Charlotte. Very gentle landing in the river.

146 passengers on board..
NY Waterways Ferry is right there too .. that is good. Plenty of room and help.

Maybe now they'll do something about those G D geese.

Flight 1549. Initial reports indicate it may have hit birds.

On ABC News, Robin Roberts is reporting from her apartment which overlooks the Hudson. She's using binoculars and reports that all the passengers may be off the plane.

Kaite Couric just reported everyone is off the plane.

A+ to the pilot(s) landing the plane as safely as possible in the water and avoiding the Manhattan area.

I hope all survived.

Early pic from flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregorylam/3200086900/

Thanks the lord everyone is safe, great pilot. There was a woman with a baby on board who got off- a passenger says people stayed pretty calm in evacuating.

I have flown in that corridor in a small plane with my brother who has a pilot's license. Densly populated with tall buildings on each side.

Whew! what a relief!

It sounds like the pilot was amazing. Once he knew he was in trouble he was trying to get to Teterboro Airport (in NJ), realized he didn't have enough time so he landed in the river. Amazing that he pulled it together and that in a very congested city like NYC no one on the ground got hurt. He truly sounds like a hero.

Pilot did an incrdible job bringing that large a plane down right in the middle of the river softly enough that it stayed completely afloat for almost 6 minutes - giving everyone time to get off.

And luckily the Weehawken ferry was already on it's way across the river and was at the scene in about 4 minutes - joined shortly by several Staten Island ferries and a couple of fire department boats.

(If you have to do a water landing the Hudson is the place to do it - lots of sizable rescue boats a couple of minutes away.)

Aparently all passengers and crew are fine - many didn't even get wet.

One pilot commentator said that this situation - a flock of large birds (Canada geese) on take off is one of the worst nightmares, since the plane still doesn;t have all of its flaps etc deployed and is very unmaneurveable - exceept for heading up.

The next question is - what to do about the geese. They do congregate in massive flocks at this time of year - and are a menace to a plane of any size - since only a few sucked in can clog a jet engine - meaning the plane has no power at all.

A bunch of very lucky people!

Amazing .... what a testament to the pilot's skill. Watching the news and they said this is the first time a jetliner has ever "landed" intact on water.