"We're gonna be in the Hudson"

Those were the exact words the pilot of the 'miracle flight' told air traffic controllers right before ditching the plane in the Hudson River. The flight attendants yelled, "Brace! Brace! Head down!" You never want to hear that from your flight attendants. Neither of them realized they were in the water. The decision to make a water landing was the best decision Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III will ever make.

'Miracle' pilot tells why he ditched in river

Larry Neumeister,David B. Caruso, Associated Press

(01-18) 04:00 PST New York - --

The pilot of a crippled US Airways jetliner made a split-second decision to put down in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a catastrophic crash in a populated neighborhood, he told investigators Saturday.

Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III said that in the few minutes he had to decide where to set down the powerless plane Thursday afternoon, he felt it was "too low, too slow" and near too many buildings to go anywhere else, according to the National Transportation Safety Board report of his testimony. Excerpted from www.sfgate.com