Dave Sanderson was not supposed to be on US Airways Flight 1549.
Vincent Lombardi, Manny Liba and Mohamed Gouda didn't expect to pick up passengers in the middle of the Hudson River on that frigid January day.
Dr. Ron Weiss did not plan to make a house call in an outdoor ferry terminal.
None of them envisioned a plane landing in the middle of the Hudson River, as happened on a cold January day in 2009, but all had roles in whatcame to be known as the "Miracle on the Hudson."
The landing of the Airbus A320-214 by pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeff Skiles on the Hudson River, only minutes after it left La Guardia Airport in New York that afternoon, was called by aNational Transportation SafetyBoard member"the most successful ditching in aviation history."
The airliner had struck a flock of Canada geese soon after takeoff from La Guardia and lost all engine power. Sullenberger issued a mayday at 3:27 p.m.,unable to return to New York or make an emergency landing at Teterboro Airport.
Minutes later, the plane ditched into the river, and the 155 aboard survived what would have been a mass tragedy.
The plane came down betweenPort ImperialinWeehawken and the IntrepidSea, Air and Space Museum in Manhattan.
A total of 143 passengers were rescued by NY Waterway ferry crews and 12 were saved by the Coast Guard with the help of first responders. They were taken to triage areas set up at docking areas on both sides of the Hudson, before 26 were taken to hospitals including Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen.
The plane itself now sitsin TheCarolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina, the flight's original destination 10 years ago.
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'Oath as a mariner'
Vincent Lombardi,who now lives in Woodland Park, was pilotingthe NY WaterwayferryThomas Jefferson out of Pier 79 on Manhattan's West Side a little before 3:30 on Jan. 15, 2009, carrying passengers from midtown Manhattan toWeehawken.
Lombardi, who had been ferry captain for six years, said he watched the commercial jet touch down on the water. The sight was "surreal," but his reaction was not of shock.
"My agenda for myself and my crew was to keep ourselves in order and keep our composure,"Lombardi said.
And, of course, to act. The ferry was the first boat to make its way to the plane.Lombardi said he was simply"fulfilling his oath as a mariner." He contacted the Coast Guard while on his way.
"I remember how I orchestrated my approach so that I would not throw weight into the plane and knock the people off the wing," Lombardi recalled. "The people were actually walking on a submerged wing.They were already a foot deep in water."
It took less than five minutes for the ferry to reachthe plane.
Two deckhandspulled down a ladder and threw rope lines into the water for people to grab hold. Two ferry passengers volunteered to gather life jackets to throw into the river.
Lombardi and his crew ended up retrieving 56 passengers from the frigidwater — it was 20 degrees that day — and transporting them to Manhattan, which he saw was the faster trip even though he was advised to take them to New Jersey.Once they reached shore, they were taken to nearby hospitals.
Other ferries would be dispatched, along with the Coast Guard, and they would take the remaining passengers to New Jersey and New York to be treated.
However, Lombardi's daywas anything but done, as he had to escort New York City police and fire officials to the plane, amid what haddeveloped into a "chaotic scene." That was followed by a whirlwind of newspaper and TV interviews across the nation.
And when that all wrapped up, he thought it was time to relax, but his boss had other ideas.
"He tells me, 'You have to finish your shift,' " Lombardi said with a laugh. "I said 'What?' I thought we would go out and get a co*cktail, because I needed a stiff drink."
Lombardi would eventually get his co*cktail—and another reward six years later, when he got to play himself in themovie "Sully," directed by his Hollywood hero, Clint Eastwood.
And he counts some of the people he rescued among his friends, including Doreen Welsh, one of the flight attendants, who ended up on his ferry with alarge gash on her leg. She spent a fewdays in a New York hospital.
Rather than himself, he credits his crew, who endured cold, wet conditions torescue passengers.
"I don't put myself on a pedestal.it's not likeI wassaving the country. I just consider myself lucky to be part of an actual miracle, where everything worked out," Lombardi said.
The story continues after thepodcast.
There were other miracles
Cliffside Park resident Manny Liba, another ferry captain,was checking the ferry boatMoira Smith, which was docked nearLincoln Harbor in Weehawken, about a half-hour before a 4 p.m. trip.
Then he saw Flight 1549 making its dramatic landing.
"I couldn't really believe it, but then when the plane landed, and the doors popped open and the people jumped out, then you realize:This is real," Liba said.
Mohamed Gouda of Jersey City was at the helm of the ferry George Washington, headed from Lincoln Harbor to Manhattan, asthe plane reached the river.
"My crew wereasking me, 'Captain, did you see that?' and I thought:It's probablyWill Smith shooting a movie," Gouda said. "But usually we receive notification from the Coast Guard."
The crew of the Moira Smith would rescue 14 passengers as the second boat on the scene.The George Washington saved a passenger who Gouda said was drowning.
"She could have been the only victim if we didn't see her and bring her onto the boat," Gouda said.
Liba, looking back, said there were other "miracles" besides the incredible landing of the plane that ensured all the passengers survived.
"The day before, we had ice in the river, but that daywhen the plane came down, the ice chunks weregone ... plus it was before rush-hour traffic, so you can imagine every boat with passengers inside, if they were in the path of the plane," Liba said.
Just another flight
Dave Sanderson planned to be in North Bergen on Tuesday, honoring the staff ofHackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center who tended to him andother passengers brought there.
"I don't think I can be in a better place on the anniversary than with the people who took care of me," Sanderson said.
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Ten years ago, Sanderson was a salesman for Oracle on a business trip in New York City. He had finished up around 10and wanted to head home to his wife and four children.
"I was scheduled to be on the 5 p.m. flight to Charlotte, because I thought we would be done at around 2, 3 p.m.," Sanderson said. "But we got done early, so I called our corporate travel agent and told her to put me on Flight 1549, which changed my life forever."
Sanderson recalled Sullenberger's terseyet ominous announcement from the co*ckpit.
"I was on the plane not paying attention, just doing my thing, until I heard an explosion. It was a loud boom, and then I look out the window andsee fire coming outfrom underneath the left wing.But I figured the plane would just go back to La Guardia," Sanderson said.
"It wasn't until we crossed over the George Washington Bridge and I heard, 'This is your captain, brace for impact,' that I realized that it was an extremely serious situation."
Sanderson followed Sullenberger's order, and then sought divine intervention.
"I prayed.I tried to get things in order," he said. "That last minute before you crash into the river, it was like the movie of my life passing by me."
Sanderson was one ofthe last passengers to get off the plane, becausehe went to the back to see if anyone needed help.
When he made his way out, he found that the rightwing of the plane was occupied by passengers and there was no space on lifeboats. He wound up swimming to a NY Waterway ferry that took him to a triage area set up at the Weehawken Ferry Terminal.
At a hospital, he received treatment for hypothermia and high blood pressure.
"Nurse [Zoraida Bautista] and the other people at the hospital took good care of me.They are my heroes, and I am coming back to say thank you," Sanderson said.
Today, he continues to fly not only for business, but also as a public speaker who credits the experience for steering him down a new path.
"People said I would have depression, I would have PTSD, but I became, as one magazine put it, acase study for post-traumatic growth syndrome," Sanderson said.
No sign of chaos
Ron Weiss was the town doctor forWest New York with emergency room experience who also had his own community clinic in the town.
The Morris County resident had done past medical work for NY Waterway, including setting up the triage area during 9/11. When the US Airways plane went into the river, he closed up his clinic and headedto the Weehawken Ferry Terminal with the clinic's other doctor.
It was much different from his memories of Sept. 11.
"While 9/11 was chaotic, this was much more organized," Weiss said.
Fay Spragley, a nursing administrator at the hospital, heard an "external disaster" alert in the hospital just after the plane landed. She made sure that everything was organized,from equipment to the emergency room.
"We were prepared, because we had a little time to prepare;everyone was on board," Spragley said.
Nikki Mederos was in her sixth-floor office at what was thenPalisades Medical Center that winter day when she got a sense of the emergency situation to come.
"I saw a huge shadow come over my window, and then I heard the announcement over the speaker that said at that point that it was an 'external disaster,' " said Mederos, director of external affairs for the hospital, who was working in patient relations at the time.
The first thought she said flashed in her mind was 9/11, and how that tragic day saw area hospitals filled with patients. But she said the Miracle on the Hudson produced a different outcome:Everyone survived.
Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com
