story . i m anderson cooper. last week at tokyo s haneda airport, a jal airbus collided with a smaller aircraft. five crew members on the coast guard plane died. but amazingly, all 379 people on the airbus survived. they were safely evacuated before the plane was engulfed in flames. investigation into what happened is still under way. it got us thinking about that miraculous story of survival that happened 15 years ago this month. us airways flight 1549 took off from new york s laguardia airport heading to charlotte, north carolina. there were 150 passengers onboard and 5 crew members, including the pilot, captain chesley sully sullenberger. it should have been a quick two-hour flight. but soon after takeoff the plane collided with a flock of geese. both engines went out and the plane headed down. captain sullenberger acted quickly, heading towards the hudson river for an emergency landing. his decisiveness saved the lives of all 159 people onboard. but this potential trage
i ve s served on s several nonot boarards, foundadations. sosome things are e not as gooo. i don t t think i llll ever be exact t same self f that i wasa i boararded that a airplane. thisis is my boaoarding passss. i can t t get rid ofof that stu. i i struggled d with why w was t plane? whatat am i supppposed to tatak from this?s? > i worry t that this i idea you cacan grow migight become e burdrden for manany people, , esespecially p people for r who dealining with thehe aftermatht the event they ve gone through can be challenging. we re not saying that we must somehow prescribe post traumatic growthth or expectct it of ever. itit s not a u universal e expe, but it s common and it s natural. one passenger in particular wrote toto me to telell me of h concerns t that with h her seco chance thahat she hadndn t done enough of f with it i i tried t sasay, no you u re living g you however r you want..
and when i was on that flight, there was a pilot thatat was a passenenger. hehe leaned ovover to me, , and said, ma am, dodo not worryry t tuturbulence. . hehe said, alall we worryry ab the cockckpit are bibirds and f the birds had been completely coconsumed by y the enginenes. and t that burnining smell c into t the airplanane. for whatetever stupupid r re took o off my seat belt anand it over to o the window, anand i ld out the window and the engine is there r r still therere, but it not t running. what wawas most frirightenin me w was the sililence. there was no engine e noise. > we could feel our b blood pressurere shoot up,p, our puls spike.e. our perceptualal field nararrow tunnel visision becaususe of th stress. . i knew without a shadow of a doubt that life was over.. i honestltly thought t that s going toto die. i thought this was it..