NYC honors ‘American heroes’ of flight 1549

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented pilot Chesley Sullenberger and his crew with keys to the city on Monday, calling them “five real American heroes.”

Sullenberger stressed that, while he’s gotten a lot of the credit, it was a team effort. He praised the crew, emergency responders and the passengers.

Sullenberger ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the frigid Hudson River when a flock of birds disabled the plane’s engines on Jan. 15. All 155 people aboard survived.

Bloomberg said that day “could have been one of our most tragic, but became one of our most triumphant.”

He said a miracle was made possible by the crew’s years of experience and training.

Bloomberg told them: “Thank you for sparing our city and so many families from an awful tragedy.”

The ceremony at City Hall in Manhattan followed a weekend of adulation and interviews, including a standing ovation from the audience at a Broadway performance of “South Pacific” on Saturday.

Shocking ‘thud’ of geese
On Sunday, Sullenberger said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the sound of the geese hitting the plane and the smell of burning poultry entering the cabin was “shocking.”

“Oh, you could hear them,” he said. “Loud thumps. It felt like the airplane being pelted by heavy rain or hail. It sounded like the worst thunderstorm I’d ever heard growing up in Texas.”

The interview with Sullenberger and the other four crew members was their first since the crash landing.

Sullenberger explained that he took control of the plane from his first officer and glided it to safety, but said that in the aftermath of the emergency landing, he lay awake at night second-guessing his performance, even though everyone aboard survived.

Initial regret
He said he initially had trouble forgiving himself because he thought he could have done something different in that “critical situation.”

“The first few nights were the worst,” Sullenberger said. “When the `what ifs’ started.”

For the full story go to MSNBC