A US Airways jet with 150 passengers and five crew on board came down into the frigid Hudson River off Manhattan after apparently hitting a flock of geese on Thursday and officials said everyone was rescued. “We've confirmed everyone got off,” the Federal Aviation Administration said. A number of people were injured and taken for treatment at New York hospitals. The FAA said it was investigating reports that the Airbus A320 plane hit a flock of birds after taking off from New York's LaGuardia airport. Witnesses saw it make an emergency landing in a cloud of spray on the river on a freezing day. Flight 1549 was headed for Charlotte, North Carolina. A passenger said there was what sounded like an explosion a few minutes after takeoff. “The engine blew. There was fire everywhere and it smelled like gas,” said Jeff Kolodjay, from Norwalk, Connecticut. “People were bleeding all over. We hit the water pretty hard. It was scary.” “You gotta give it to the pilot, he made a hell of a landing,” he said, visibly shaken from his experience. The pilot brought the plane down in a cloud of spray in the fast moving river, which runs to the West of Manhattan island. Another rescued passenger, Alberto Panero, told CNN, “It's just incredible that everyone's alive.” As many as eight ferries and local water taxi services rushed to rescue passengers, some of whom lined up on the half-submerged plane's wings wearing yellow life vests, before police boats arrived. At St. Luke's Roosevelt hospital in midtown Manhattan, patients arrived with one elderly couple still wearing their life preservers. A hospital spokesman said he expected as many as 50 patients with exposure and secondary injuries with more serious injuries being sent to nearby hospitals.
