the empire state building, they could not believe what they were seeing. >> as we got closer, we were able to read u.s. airways, now, you know, this is a big aircrafts. they had to be a problem. >> that is a new york city police helicopter coming into the right side there. >> reporter: the nypd spotted them and the water. the temperature, 36 degrees, every second mattered, so they did not hesitate. >> she was panicking, and i just tried to calm her down. my first initial thought was to introduce myself to her. i said, hi, i am michael, i am going to get you out of here. >> reporter: after rescuing her and another passenger, and then detectives michael delaney and robert rodriguez turned to the sinking plane, assumed there were passengers still trapped, no way everyone survived. >> when i went in the plane and started swimming a bit, i was running into objects that were submerged that i thought or