By Alan Levin, USA TODAY  NEW YORK  Salvage crews hoisted a US Airways jetliner from the Hudson River and onto a barge late Saturday, three days after its pilot made what he told investigators was a split-second decision to attempt a water landing to avoid a possibly "catastrophic" crash over populated areas.  Investigators retrieved the black boxes, which were filled with fresh water, packed them into blue coolers and sped them immediately to Washington.  The single-aisle jet filled with water weighs about 1 million pounds, as much as the mammoth Airbus A380 double-decker jet, said NTSB board member Kitty Higgins.  Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, 58, took over the controls of the Airbus A320 shortly after it struck a flock of large brown birds, according to his first account of the splashdown in the river Thursday afternoon released by the National Transportation Safety Board.  The birds snuffed out the jet's two engines almost immediately, filling the plane with the smell of what Sullenberger described as "burning birds," Higgins said.  While co-pilot Jeffrey B. Skiles, 49, desperately tried to restart the jet's two engines, Sullenberger tilted the jet's nose downward to keep up its speed and assessed his options. To his left was LaGuardia Airport, an urban airport surrounded on three sides by dense neighborhoods.  "Too low, too slow, too many buildings, too populated an area," he recalled thinking, according to Higgins.  A few miles to the right lay Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, which is used for corporate jets.  "The captain said it was farther away," Higgins said. "He'd never been there. Didn't think he could make it. And was concerned that if he didn't make it, it was also a populated area. The consequences would have been catastrophic if they didn't make it."  Two days after the jet carrying 150 passengers and five crewmembers splashed down into the frigid waters of the Hudson without a single fatality, dramatic details of the brief flight emerged.  The preliminary evidence of what caused the mishap is pointing more strongly toward an impact with birds, according to information released by Higgins. A passenger sitting in the first-class section reported seeing birds hit the jet, a flight attendant told investigators, Higgins said. And two FAA radars spotted vague targets in the path of the jet that are consistent with a flock of birds, she said.  Sullenberger and Skiles both said that a large flock of birds struck the plane shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia.  Skiles, who had more than 15,000 hours flying experience but only 35 hours in the A320, was at the controls as the jet climbed toward the north. They estimated their speed at about 250 to 280 mph.  Skiles saw the birds first, Higgins said. They were flying in a "perfect line formation" off to the right of the jet's nose, Higgins said. He initially thought that the plane would fly over the birds and mentioned it to Sullenberger, Higgins said.  "When (Sullenberger) looked up, he said the windscreen was filled with birds," Higgins said. The captain said his instinct was to duck, though he did not. They both heard a boom and felt the impact.  About this time, 98 seconds after an air-traffic controller had cleared them to takeoff, one of the pilots radioed a grim distress call, according to a preliminary transcript of radio calls released by Higgins.  "Ah, this is Cactus 1549," the pilot said, using the airline's shorthand identification and flight number. "Hit birds. We lost thrust in both engines. We're turning back torwards LaGuardia."  After the initial report of trouble at 2:27:32 p.m., a controller handling departures from LaGuardia asked the pilots if they wanted to land on Runway 13 at LaGuardia.  "The pilot responded, 'We are unable. We may end up in the Hudson,' " Higgins said. Investigators have not identified whether Sullenberger or Skiles made the radio calls.  The pilot and the controller discussed a possible landing at Teterboro Airport just across the Hudson in New Jersey, but the pilot responded, "We can't do it," she said.  Seconds later, the controller asked the pilot which runway he would like to land on. "The pilot responded, 'We're gonna be in the Hudson.' That was the last communiqué from the plane."  Investigators Saturday also talked to the flight's three flight attendants.  The attendants heard a loud thud of the bird impact, then silence. "All of the engine noise ceased," Higgins said the attendants reported. "They described it as complete silence. … It was like being in a library."  "Then an announcement came from the captain: 'Brace for impact,' " Higgins said. "The flight attendants then ordered the passengers to, " 'Brace, brace! Heads down!' "  A flight attendant in the rear of the jet, where the doors were below the water line, told investigators that she tried to get passengers to go forward to exit. But one female passenger insisted on trying to open one of the rear emergency exits, allowing water to enter the plane, Higgins said.  The attendant, who has 38 years of experience on the job, waded in the cold water up to her chest before leaving the plane, Higgins said. Only then did she feel woozy and notice a gash on her leg.  They described an orderly evacuation, Higgins said. As has been described in earlier accounts, Sullenberger walked the aisles several times to make sure everyone was off the plane, the attendants told investigators.  Much has been made of a design feature of the A320 known as a "ditching switch" that seals the underside of the jet in the event of a water landing to make the aircraft more buoyant.  According to Higgins, the pilots never activated it. Instructions to do so are at the end of a three-page checklist for a twin-engine failure. Skiles did not have time to finish the checklist in the roughly three minutes from impact to water touchdown, she said.  You share in the USA TODAY community, so please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack other readers personally, and keep your language decent. Use the "Report Abuse" button to make a difference.
The right engine on the miracle US Airways jet that splashed down into the Hudson River remains attached to the wing, investigators now say.