Tribute In the memories of the victims of airplane crashes A320 in NY Hudson River

A US Airways Airbus A320 passenger plane carrying at least 150 people has crashed into the Hudson River in New York City. The plane, which the FAA said was flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, is partially submerged. Rescue boats at the scene have been picking up passengers standing on the plane's wings and officials said it seemed that everyone aboard survived. Bird strikes disabled two of the plane's engines, officials said. "There is no indication that the incident is security-related," a homeland security official told the BBC. Three minutes A passenger who escaped from the aircraft told CNN: "A couple of minutes after taking off we heard a loud bang, the plane shook a bit and immediately we could smell smoke and fire." Fox News also quoted passengers as saying that everyone from the plane had escaped alive. A spokeswoman for the US Federal Aviation Authority, Laura Brown, said it was believed the plane had been in the air for three minutes after take-off when it crashed. A man who witnessed the crash told ABC that the pilots' efforts had helped ensure a relatively soft landing on the water. "From my window I saw the plane was coming down below the radar zone," he said. "I thought it might be a terrorist attack or something but the plane looked like it had difficulty trying to... gain altitude but as it got closer to the water I saw the pilot, he made a last-ditch effort to try to gain altitude. "And he did that for a few seconds and then the plane just came down and plopped on the water. Had he not done that he would have damaged the fuselage."

» View the original video «

YouTube | January 15, 2009

Tags:. .lastditch. .laguardia. .submerged. .faa. .altitude