HomeSaturday update, with U.S. Coast Guard video, from the Guardian (U.K.) Salvage teams move in on wreckage of US Airways plane as New York rejoices: More than 100 of the passengers, apparently unfazed by what had happened to them, boarded another flight yesterday to their original destination, Charlotte in North Carolina. They were served free drinks during the flight and some were described as quite merry when they got there.
Janis Krums, a tourist from Sarasota, Fla., Twittered from his iPhone and posted this photo on TwitPic, captioned, "There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy."
The photo -- I've cropped some water and sky from the the version above -- has been viewed more than 90,000 times in the fewer than 12 hours since the crash, and is now moving on the Associated Press feed.
It took me a while to realize that the crowd who seem to be walking on water -- or standing knee-deep in the middle of the Hudson -- must be standing on the floating plane's wing.
The Times blogged the aftermath of the masterful landing of US Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport in New York, bound for Charlotte, N.C. (Updates From Plane Rescue in Hudson River), and interviewed both rescued passengers and observers (What Happened on Flight 1549, Inside and Out). Their main story is headlined with the amazing news, All 155 Escape Jet's Plunge Into Hudson.
The pilot, Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III, from Danville, Calif., 57, emerged as a genuine hero of the crash, which was probably caused by a flock of birds taking out both engines barely a minute into the flight: US Airways Crew Is Credited for Nimble Reaction.
Doc Searls posts (USA1549 down but not out) the route of the very short flight from FlightAware, below, which makes clear that the decision to ditch the Airbus in the Hudson was a deliberate choice to avoid disaster in densely populated Manhattan and surrounding areas.
USA1549 Flight Track (with map) on FlightAware
Intelligence, experience and patience tacked a happy ending on a tale that must have seemed to those aboard about to end with their own tragic deaths.
More: How Birds Can Down a Jet Airplane at LiveScience.
NowPublic has put together a Web 2.0 reaction page
Following USA1549: Doc Searls continues to find interesting links, including pilot Sully's Facebook fan page, and why Airbuses can float.
