‘Miracle on the Hudson’: Co-Pilot Sees Wreckage Four Years Later
Published at
Chris McGrath/Getty Images(CHARLOTTE, N.C.) — Four years ago on Tuesday, US Airways Flight 1549 had to make an emergency landing in New York’s Hudson River after the plane hit a flock of Canadian Geese and lost engine power.
In what’s been deemed the “Miracle on the Hudson,” Capt. Chesley Sully Sullenberger managed to land the aircraft safely on the river, saving the lives of the 155 passengers and crew members on board.
Today, the plane sits in a museum in Charlotte, N.C. Jeff Skiles, the co-pilot of the flight, checked out the wreckage for the first time on Monday.
“It really is something to see frankly all the damage to it. Because I never saw that,” he said.
Skiles said that “everybody’s life has changed in some way or another” from the Jan. 15, 2009 incident.
“I think or hope anyways for most of us it’s been a good change. I know it has been for me,” he said.
While he is currently on leave from US Airways to pursue other aviation interests, Skiles said he plans to return.
“When it comes down it I’m an airline pilot and in two years I’ll be back in the cockpit at US Airways,” he said.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio