Sully reunites with rescue divers 15 years after ‘Miracle on Hudson’ — Transcript

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1. 0:00That's runway four. We took off to the
2. 0:02north and made a left turn.
3. 0:04Flying in an NYPD helicopter, Captain
4. 0:07Chesley Sullenberger has a bird's-eye
5. 0:09view of where he took off 15 years ago
6. 0:13before his plane, US Airways flight
7. 0:151549, hit a flock of birds.
8. 0:18How long had you been in the air?
9. 0:2045
10. 0:21Uh before the geese.
11. 0:23100 seconds.
12. 0:24Yeah, this is uh Cactus 1539 hit birds
13. 0:27and lost thrust and told they had to
14. 0:29turn back towards LaGuardia.
15. 0:31The powerless plane, engines aflame, had
16. 0:34an audience, alarmed New Yorkers who
17. 0:37flooded the emergency lines.
18. 0:39I'm witnessing an airplane that's going
19. 0:41down. It's on fire on the left wing.
20. 0:42Where? Where?
21. 0:43I'm in the Bronx. It's It's turning. I
22. 0:45don't know where it's going to fall
23. 0:46though.
24. 0:49In a hangar near JFK, NYPD's elite scuba
25. 0:52team took in the radio traffic, piecing
26. 0:54together the calls like a breadcrumb
27. 0:57trail.
28. 0:58Came over aircraft debris, Hunts Point,
29. 1:01the Bronx Zoo. You start to develop a
30. 1:03picture. Whatever it is, it's turning
31. 1:05west towards um
32. 1:08the Hudson River.
33. 1:09Captain Sullenberger was indeed eyeing
34. 1:12the wide and smooth river.
35. 1:14It turned out we didn't have enough
36. 1:16altitude or speed to either return to
37. 1:18LaGuardia or to go across the river to
38. 1:21Teterboro, New Jersey.
39. 1:23Okay, which runway would you like at
40. 1:24Teterboro?
41. 1:25We're going to be in the Hudson.
42. 1:31So, I chose the least bad option.
43. 1:33I was very glad to have it.
44. 1:35The least bad option.
45. 1:36Yes.
46. 1:38The scuba team, meanwhile, launched
47. 1:40their chopper. And as they flew past the
48. 1:42Empire State Building, they could not
49. 1:45quite believe what they were seeing.
50. 1:47Before we got closer and we able to read
51. 1:50US Airways.
52. 1:51Now, we know this is a big aircraft and
53. 1:55that had a catastrophic problem.
54. 1:57That is a New York City police
55. 1:59helicopter coming in to the right side
56. 2:01there.
57. 2:02The NYPD divers spotted a woman in the
58. 2:04water. The river temperature, 36°. Every
59. 2:08second mattered, so they didn't
60. 2:10hesitate.
61. 2:11She was panicking, and I just tried to
62. 2:14calm her down. My first initial thought
63. 2:16was to introduce myself to her. I said,
64. 2:18"Hi, I'm Michael.
65. 2:20I'm going to get you out of here."
66. 2:21After rescuing her and another
67. 2:24passenger, then detectives Michael
68. 2:26Delaney and Robert Rodriguez turned to
69. 2:29the sinking plane. They assumed there
70. 2:31were passengers still trapped. No way
71. 2:35everyone survived.
72. 2:36When I went in the plane and I started
73. 2:38swimming a bit, I was running into
74. 2:40objects that were submerged
75. 2:42that I thought were bodies, but it was
76. 2:43in fact luggage.
77. 2:45Thankfully.
78. 2:46Yeah.
79. 2:47But, there was one person who knew all
80. 2:51150 passengers were off that plane.
81. 2:55I went through the airplane from front
82. 2:56to back twice just to make doubly sure
83. 2:58that there was no one left behind.
84. 3:00When the dive team heard that,
85. 3:02the respect for Ches- Chesley was up
86. 3:04here and and never, you know,
87. 3:06wavered.
88. 3:07The respect, mutual.
89. 3:09They say people who could have floated
90. 3:11away and and drowned almost unnoticed
91. 3:14otherwise, and I was very concerned
92. 3:16about that.
93. 3:1715 years, the captain long eager to
94. 3:20reunite with the dive team that played
95. 3:22such an important role in the rescue.
96. 3:25Oh my goodness.
97. 3:27Hello, gentlemen. How are you?
98. 3:32Good to see you. Can you believe it's
99. 3:34been 15 years?
100. 3:35Not at all.
101. 3:36Thank you for everything you did for us
102. 3:38that day.
103. 3:38And I think if we had 20 opportunities
104. 3:40to do it all over again, it wouldn't
105. 3:42have gone as good as the first time we
106. 3:43did it.
107. 3:44Captain Sullenberger does this thing
108. 3:46where anytime he talks about what
109. 3:49happened that day, it's always we, we,
110. 3:51we. It's never I did this, I did that.
111. 3:55Have you noticed that?
112. 3:56Yes. It's probably the first time
113. 3:59collectively a bunch of people from
114. 4:02different industries did a gut check and
115. 4:05said, "I'm going to act bravely in this
116. 4:06moment." I know I I had some fear in the
117. 4:08helicopter that day, but I said, "This
118. 4:10is what you've been tasked to do. This
119. 4:12is your job, so swallow it
120. 4:15and try to save whoever you can."
121. 4:17A lot of first responders of that day
122. 4:19who took a chance to make it their
123. 4:21mission to save every life. Fortunately,
124. 4:23they did.
125. 4:24Individual acts of bravery that when
126. 4:27added all together made a miracle.
127. 4:31You know, you you said it best. It is
128. 4:33crazy even 15 15 years later.
129. 4:34I asked him. I said, "You know, what do
130. 4:36you think it is about this particular
131. 4:37story that has resonated with so many
132. 4:39for so long?" And he made a good point.
133. 4:41I I'd actually forgotten this. If you
134. 4:42think about where we were as a country,
135. 4:442009,
136. 4:46coming out of 2008, the financial
137. 4:47crisis. You had greed, a lot of folks
138. 4:50talking about how the individual greed
139. 4:52of of folks had helped bring down the
140. 4:54collective economy. And here you had on
141. 4:56this chilly day strangers coming
142. 4:57together.
143. 4:58Private boats and and everyone jumping
144. 5:01in.
145. 5:02Yes. Wow. So, I also asked him that I
146. 5:04found this to be especially interesting.
147. 5:06You would assume that after you save 155
148. 5:09people including the crew
149. 5:10that you might have elite status on the
150. 5:12airline.
151. 5:12Sure.
152. 5:13No. No lifetime like diamond platinum
153. 5:15status. No free tickets. No free plane
154. 5:18tickets.
155. 5:19He probably won't.
156. 5:20No.
157. 5:20Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
158. 5:21You can just change it.
159. 5:22Doesn't even get the whole can of Coke.
160. 5:24I mean, come on.
161. 5:25It was cold that day, but they're lucky
162. 5:26they had decent weather because that
163. 5:27Hudson River was pretty cold.
164. 5:29There was ice on the river. So, we
165. 5:31should also note that the Paley Center
166. 5:32for Media here in New York is hosting a
167. 5:34special Miracle on the Hudson discussion
168. 5:36tonight. It will of course include the
169. 5:38captain there, also passengers and first
170. 5:41responders. And they they all stay in
171. 5:43touch, by the way.
172. 5:44What an amazing story. You get to go fly
173. 5:45with him. And that's pretty cool.
174. 5:46I I was really cool. I I was in good
175. 5:48hands too. I was like if something
176. 5:49happens
177. 5:51All right, Mr. Roker check of the
178. 5:53weather.
179. 5:54Don't you love this job?
180. 5:55I do. Every day. And I get to sit sit
181. 5:58next to guys like you too.
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