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
enorormity of ththe plane ununt see it a a at time likike this. this is s the door t that i acty came o out of, whihich is righge abovove me. and sully came out of the cockckpit door a and said evavacuate. i undid d my seat bebelt.. i rememberer i took mymy shoes and ththen i jumped into the hudson river. i remember i swam to the front of the plane, and i looked back and i saw people walking on water. so i actually thought that i had died. anand it was o only after r i s swimming back this way did i realize that people were on the wing andnd i wasn t t dead. > i was cononcerned thahat s evacuauating the a airplane mime leftft behind. that s whyhy i had thehe need t ththrough the e airplane t twic. i i was at sucuch a state e of , i didn t t trust my eyeyes and .