“It changed how you approach each day. I look each day as I get up with gratitude so not only the good experiences but I’m grateful for those that are trying as well.” passenger Sheryl Nejman says.
On the 15-year anniversary of what has been called the “Miracle on the Hudson,” passengers gathered in Inside Edition’s Newsroom to remember the life-changing day.
“Hit birds. We've lost thrust in both engines. We may end up in the Hudson,” Captain Sully Sullenberg said over the radio as the horrific event unfolded.
After the US Airways jet carrying 155 passengers and crew suffered damages due to hitting a group of birds, the heroic Captain “Sully” was forced to land the plane on New York’s Hudson River in 2009.
Video captured during the scene showed the plane floating in the Hudson River while passengers escaped to the wings for safety. With a safe landing and all passengers surviving, the event has been known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
In honor of the 15th anniversary of that fateful day, 12 of the passengers who were aboard the jet were reunited at the Inside Edition studio overlooking the same river that changed their lives years ago.
“My son was 2 years old and I was thinking about all the things I would miss — teaching him to throw a baseball, kick a soccer ball, drive a car, and over 15 years he's about to graduate high school so I thank every day for those extra days, those quality times with my family,” passenger Tripp Harris tells Inside Edition.
“It changed how you approach each day. I look each day as I get up with gratitude, so not only the good experiences but I’m grateful for those that are trying as well.” passenger Sheryl Nejman says.
The “Miracle on the Hudson” passengers say the shared trauma has made them all members of a close-knit community.
“I felt immediately that there was this bond between all of us,” Denise Lockie says.
Several of the passengers suffered hypothermia in the freezing temperatures and recalled acts of kindness from strangers.
“My feet were blue, just blue and a young woman on the ferry boat took off her socks under her boots and handed me her socks and helped me put them on,” Beth McHugh says.
Barry Leonard says a flight crew member gave him the shirt off his back.
“The hospital, they were like, ‘We got the captain, we’ve got the captain,’ and I kept just saying to everybody, ‘I’m not the captain,” Leonard says.
The group of passengers revisited the Hudson River’s edge Friday and more memories came flooding back.
“It was a feeling beyond fear,” Clay Presley says. “I came to the realization that I was going to die on the airplane.”
The 2009 incident left Presley with an overwhelming fear of flying. To combat it, Presley became a pilot himself. His plane’s tail number is 1549, the same number as the fateful flight, plus an “H” for Hudson.
Five years ago several of the survivors and their families had an emotional reunion, returning to the plane, which is currently in a museum in Charlotte named for Sully Sullenberger.
