Exclusive time-lapse footage of "The Miracle on the Hudson"
On January 15th 2009, "The Miracle on the Hudson" US Airways Flight 1549 crash landed outside my window in the Hudson river here in New York. Over 72hrs, I captured time-lapse footage of the half submerged A320 Airbus as it grasped for breath as it fought with the elements of nature. The below short movie tells it's story.
America was desperate for a good feeling news story and Sullenberger brought one. It also brought the mass media to River Terrace here in downtown Manhattan as the cameras tried to get photos and videos of the remains of an amazing story. Reporters and camera crews were kept well away from the site by police and the FBI. Fortunately right below my feet, 30 floors up was the best view in New York City, if not the world that night.
The next morning, they hauled 4 floating cranes up the Hudson. The next one was bigger than the last. They just didn't know what would work but they went with the biggest thing that's ever floated up here. The smaller crane below against the wall was not used at all after some failed test runs.
Each time I walk by here when taking the dog for a walk, I pier over to look at the site that was so surreal back in January. An airliner that crashed in NYC was sticking out of the ice, right here. Like a movie set.
The ice drifted down towards the Statue of Liberty but like onlookers around a crime scene, slowly gawked at the Airbus as it cruised by. That's New Jersey in the background.
I was awake all night, in awe of what was below. I took a snap in pure disbelief. I am a plane nut you see.
Close up of the power tools. The big beast was more than enough for the job. Took 2 days before they actually used it, but when they did, it performed with an effortless attitude.
My brother took this from his apartment 3 floors down. To our left was hoards of news teams and camera crews.
A few of us uploaded a lot of footage here on Kontain.com from photos to videos over the 72 hrs. It's archived here.
3D reconstruction of the landing from takeoff to landing. An excellent watch. I thought the Captain would of let folks know, "brace for impact, we need to land in the Hudson smoothly here as we have 2 engines out. Brace for impact, it will be a little more bumpy than usual" instead of just "brace for impact" which could mean, into a Manhattan skyscraper or city.
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vionnet
2 months ago
awesome video!
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Thiago Lima
2 months ago
Perfect, amazing job, wonderful...
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kimgunnarsson
2 months ago
Excellent video David!
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tommy hannon
2 months ago
Great video David..love the soundtrack!
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james jeckell
2 months ago
Who does the soundtrack ???
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Author
David
2 months ago
Quoted from: james jeckell - "Who does the soundtrack ???"
Transformers, Arrival to earth by Steve Jablonsky.
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AlexanderG
2 months ago
Really really good edit David! That music gave the right feelings.
Amazing job!
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Author
David
2 months ago
The video is N1 on liveleak.com. Someone posted it there somehow...I found it by accident via google.
At least its getting views :)
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bestbuzz
2 months ago
your viral video will be presented by bestbuzz for french people
congratulations !!
http://www.bestbuzz.fr/?p=7816
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Sam
24 days ago
Fantastic work, and great choice of music for the video. Nothing's as heroic as "Arrival to Earth".
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Audion
16 days ago
Interesting how they used the little power boat's prop wash to try to keep the ice from regathering in the eddy of the crane tugs and interfering with the rigging for the lift. I'm unfamiliar with the area.... is it the tide going in/out that's causing the ice to first flow one direction and then the other?
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Author
David
16 days ago
Quoted from: Audion - "Interesting how they used the little power boat's prop wash to try to keep the ice from regathering in the eddy of the crane tugs and interfering with the rigging for the lift. I'm unfamiliar with the area.... is it the tide going in/out that's causing the ice to first flow one direction and then the other?"
that was the tide pushing the ice out towards the Atlantic. When you see the ice move back up river partially, that is due to the surrounding boat wake and the still conditions at that time.
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Vlad
14 days ago
Thank you for the time-lapse video and for the effort in creating it! Just wanted to mention one thing to help clarify the pilot's choice of words of "brace for impact". The "Cactus Flight 1549 Accident Reconstruction" page (which is awesome - check it out, and is where I found out about your video, by the way) has Captain Sully's own explanation at the NTSB hearings into the accident. After reading it I'm sure it will make sense why he said those three simple words. What a sharp, smart guy:
"I tend to think that I wish I'd had more time to more fully apprise the flight attendants of the situation that we faced. I probably spent some amount of time -- I would guess I had maybe four or five seconds to decide to make the announcement and what I should say and I chose my words carefully. My highest priority, at that moment, was to avoid passenger impact injury. I didn't know at that moment how successful I would be in trading air speed for sink rate to cushion the touchdown, so my immediate concern, my highest priority, had to be to avoid passenger injury at landing, so I chose the word impact and brace to indicate that they needed to brace themselves to avoid impact injury.
I knew that the flight attendants would do their assessment prior to opening the doors and I wish I could've told them there was a water landing, but had I done that, they might've begun getting people to put on life vests and not being in the brace position at impact, so it was a balancing act for the situation that we faced and the time that we had available."
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ICU2
14 days ago
So, why do you have a picture of yourself in the mix ????
Comments (14)