know. that does it for us tonight, we'll see you again next week. now it's time for "hardball." have an excellent weekend. out of fuel and no runway in sight. this plane is going down in the water. >> i was definitely under the water, and the aircraft was rolling to the left. >> there were bodies. there were people on the floor in the galley. >> a routine flight out of new york slams down in the hudson river. >> i'm thinking this can't be happening to me. >> a 767 hijacked. the most dramatic ditching ever caught on camera. >> i'm thinking i'm dead. >> in the next hour, life and death ordeals in pilots' and passengers' own words. >> the captain just said, "brace for impact." >> dramatic animation that put

you right at the terrifying scenes. an in-depth investigation into why some pilots make the risky decision to put their planes down in the water and how they lived to tell the story. when u.s. airways flight 1549 went down in the hudson river, surveillance cameras were only able to capture these remote images of the landing. it's hard to see what really happened. now, you are looking at the so-called miracle on the hudson as you have never seen it before. this is a detailed animation of

a flight in trouble. in the aviation industry, it's known as ditching, putting a plane down in the water, due to an emergency. it's what happens when the nearest open space is not a runway, not even a stretch of open field or a highway, but a body of water. in the case of us airways flight 1549, the hudson river in new york city. just six minutes before the world famous splashdown, flight 1549 is cleared for taxi and takeoff at new york's laguardia airport. first officer jeffrey skiles is at the controls. he is new to the airbus. for the past eight years, he has flown a boeing 737. >> well, take-off was uneventful. it was a nice day. it was cold. this is only my second trim on the airplane. i was actually hand flying the aircraft to get used to it.

about 3,000 feet we, you know, flew into the birds. >> the plane has been in the air less than three minutes when it collides with a flock of canada geese, crippling both engines. >> this is captain of 1539. a flock of birds. >> okay, yeah. you need to return to laguardia. turn left heading 2-2-0. tower stop your departures. >> captain chesley "sully" sullenberger takes control of the airplane, with two simple words. my aircraft. remarkably, there is footage of the plane's last moments being airborne. >> sully took over control of the airplane and called for the dual engine failure check list that we do, and i started to do that. >> trying to get the engines restarted? >> yes. >> and was there any luck at all? >> no. >> the airbus dual engine failure checklist, cruising at

30,000 feet would have given the pilots ample time to figure things out. hitting a flock of can at that geese at just 3,000 feet, that's another story. what at this point is going through your mind? at this point i'm thinking this cannot be happening. >> if the engines were no longer producing thrust, why wouldn't the plane have fallen from the sky out of control? the answer? simple aerodynamics. a plane with engine failure to keep the plane flying, the pilot pitches it nose down to maintain lift over the wings, essentially trading altitude for air speed. the plane then gains momentum, much like a roller coaster going downhill. in the process, the pilot has to make a mental judgment as to how far the plane will travel.

>> at 3,000 feet, you are probably going to travel a few miles. at 40,000 feet, you are going to be able to travel 100 miles, roughly. >> michelle somers halloran spent 15 years as a commercial pilot. she is now an associate professor in florida. so now you have to figure out where you're in the sky and how far you can reach. >> right. >> so you're doing some basic mental math. >> yeah, you are doing a lot of mental math in public, yes. >> captain sullenberger has nearly 20,000 hours of flight time under his belt, so it doesn't take long for him to do the math, and realizes at their altitude and rate of descent that it's too risky to try to glide all the way to an airport over a densely populated area. flight 1549 has less than two minutes until impact. air-traffic controllers at times using the wrong flight number

try to guide the plane to an airport. >> 1529 do you want to try to land runway 1-3? >> we're unable. we may end up in the hudson. >> all right. cactus 1549 it's going to be runway 1-3. >> unable. just north of the george washington bridge the captain alliance the airbus a-320 with the hudson river. he passes the bridge just to the east and continues due south. >> i looked out the window and saw that we were below the roof tops of manhattan, and i thought this is not a good sign. we are not making newark. >> did sully look at you and say we're going in the water or did you both come to the realization that's where you were going? >> it was the only option we had. we were not going to make it to an airport. that was the only open spot we saw. >> if a pilot is forced to ditch, the faa has recommendations of how to do so. it comes down to wind and waves, or swells.

>> in a perfect world, how would you land on the waves? >> depending on the wind and water, i would want to land parallel to the swells. so if you're waves are coming this way, you want to land on the top. you never, ever want to be able to -- this is a cross swell where you're perpendicular in the water this way. >> what might happen? >> land in the face of the swell, you could actually flip over like this. that's not a good thing. >> another potential hazard that could have spelled disaster for flight 1549, coming down with one wing higher than the other. >> the airplane could have cartwheeled, and it would have been violent and significantly lessened the opportunity to get everybody out as well as they did. >> turn right 2-8-0 to teterboro. >> we can't do it. >> what runway would you like at teterboro? >> we'll be in the hudson. >> the captain just said, brace for impact. and everybody started to say prayers, and we were looking at

each other not knowing what to say or do. >> at 3:30 p.m. with wing flaps and slats extended to help slow the plane down, flight 1549 is about to splash down in the hudson river. >> as you watch this unfold, everything is just about right. slow, the nose is up, the wings are level, and they have the good fortune of it being very calm. >> we did not know if we were hitting water or hitting land, which is what we were betting off. and then the impact of hitting the water was just the most tremendous impact you could imagine. >> all 155 people onboard survive. from bird strike to touch down, the entire incident lasted 3 1/2 minutes, not enough time to get through the dual engine failure checklist, much less a ditching checklist. also, not enough time to enable what's called the ditch switch, a valve that effectively seals

the plane and allows it to float longer. >> you're not sinking. you're alive. was there an exhilaration or still adrenaline going on? >> i'm sure there was an adrenaline rush, i guess. we were at the hospital and four hours later, my blood pressure is 160/100 and i'm normally a 120/70 guy. so obviously there was something physiologically going on that i did not understand. >> i'm terrific. this is the best day ever. >> a lot of things went our way. >> what kind of things went your way? >> apparently there were swells on the hudson. it was completely flat that day. and we happened to land where the ferries go to manhattan so they were right there and they rescued us. other than hitting the birds, everything went our way that day. when we come back, bird versus engine. a graphic demonstration shows the startling damage even a small bird can do to an 84-ton jet.

and flight 1549 is not the first commercial jet to be put down in the water. there have been others. some, just as successful. others, tragically not. you owned your car for four years. you named it brad. you loved brad. and then you totaled him. you two had been through everything together. two boyfriends, three jobs... you're like nothing can replace brad. then liberty mutual calls... and you break into your happy dance. if you sign up for better car replacement™, we'll pay for a car that's a model year newer with 15,000 fewer miles than your old one. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance.

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in the wake of the ditching of u.s. airways flight 1549, a lot of people wonder how a flock of 10-pound birds could incapacitate a jet with take-off weight of nearly 175,000 pounds. how could that be? the answer? as large and powerful as jet engines are, they are surprisingly delicate. this video was shot during a bird strike test run by airline manufacturer pratt and whitney. the birds are dead before the test begins. watch as the carcasses get shredded as they collide with

the turbo fan engine. not a pretty sight. but the engine doesn't fare any better with permanent damage to its titanium blades. >> when a large bird goes in, it damages the compressor in the front of the airplane. that blades that break, they cascade through the engine. >> the bang you heard was the original problem. there was a large eagle on the runway. >> bird strikes are more common than you think. according could the faa, there are at least 20 bird strikes a day across the u.s. the problem costs the aviation industry more than $2 billion a year. and since 1988, bird strikes have resulted in more than 200 deaths nationwide. fortunately, there were no human fatalities in the bird strike that forced flight 1549 into the water, but not all ditchings go that smoothly.

some run into a perfect storm of problems. imagine a pilot ends up over the caribbean sea, out of fuel and out of options, and soon into the ocean. that's the tragic story of alm flight 980. but what went so wrong? may 2nd, 1970, in a partnership between two now defunct charter airlines, dutch carrier alm and american carrier overseas national airlines, alm flight 980 is set to leave new york's jfk airport at 11:00 a.m. 57 passengers and six crew members are onboard. >> it was a beautiful day. temperatures in the 60s. scattered clouds and light winds. beautiful day in new york. >> flight 980's destination, the caribbean in st. martin.

pilots say it's one of the trickiest places in the world to land a plane, especially a 747, as this video shows. the postage stamp sized runway is perilously close to a beach and people can practically reach out and touch jets as they're coming down just a few feet over their heads. >> if the airplane were to land short and ends up on the beach full of people, it would be catastrophic. to be that close to that large of an airplane moving that quickly, the word awesome comes to mind. >> aside from physical limitations, there's a mountain range blanketing one side of the airport. and if all that isn't enough, there's that unpredictable caribbean weather. all of those factors combined are about to turn a routine flight into a nightmare. for the first time after four decades, the pilot of that flight, captain dewitt is telling his story on american television. >> as far as an accident being a chain of events, this definitely

was it. >> on the ground, captain dewitt says he confirms he has enough fuel to make it not only to his destination but also to an alternate airport in case of a diversion. standard for all commercial flights. he goes through his equipment checklist and discovers the cockpit's p.a. system isn't working, but that's not required. at 11:14 a.m., the flight is cleared for takeoff. the dc-9 is designed for short, frequent flights. the route from new york to st. martin will stretch the aircraft to its limits. as the flight heads south, the weather begins to deteriorate. captain dewitt is told visibility at the st. martin airport is below the minimum standard required for landing. he elects to divert to san juan, puerto rico. 13 minutes later, san juan tower

tells him st. martin tower wants to talk to him. >> so i picked up and tried to get hold of san martin tower. all they did was start giving me fairly good weather, which is well above the minimums i needed. i did question them, where did the report come from that you were below minimums? i elected then to refile for st. martin, my original destination, which i did. >> but as these dramatic animations illustrate, contrary to the information captain dewitt says he was given, weather is terrible. he attempts to land the plane any way, burning massive quantities of fuel in the process. >> visibility was poor. it was raining. and because of those conditions, he had to stay in closer at the airport, to the runway than he would normally. so the first attempt was

unsuccessful. >> so i lined it up with the runway and i took my second circular round. >> now on the second attempt, the winds were starting to shift and he was unable to line it up for a landing. so he decided to go on the third attempt, the same around again. conditions existed. by now, winds had shifted 180 degrees. now he had a tail wind. because he had a tail wind, he was too high on the approach. >> so at that point i told my crew, tell the tower i am going to my alternate. >> calculations showed they would make it just barely. they were legal by their calculations. but there wasn't much extra. in hindsight, it's easy to say they should have stopped in bermuda on the way to san juan. the minute they missed the runway it went from fuel critical to a full fuel emergency. >> when we come back, out of fuel, out of time and in the water.

>> i was definitely under water, and the aircraft was rolling to the left. the day with my niece. i don't use super poligrip for hold, because my dentures fit well. before those little pieces would get in between my dentures and my gum and it was uncomfortable. even well fitting dentures let in food particles. just a few dabs of super poligrip free is clinically proven to seal out more food particles so you're more comfortable and confident while you eat. so it's not about keeping my dentures in, it's about keeping the food particles out. try super poligrip free. like bundling home and auto coverage, which reduces redney. tape, which saves money. when they save, you save. that's home and auto insurance for the modern world. esurance, an allstate company. click or call. you know what, guys? there's a lot of tree branches and dry brush over here. we should probably move the bonfire over there.

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may 2nd, 1970. bad weather, low visibility, and lack of fuel. captain dewitt has no choice but to ditch his plane in the caribbean sea. no footage exists of this incident, but our dramatic animation shows what the plane might have looked like as it slammed into those turbulent waters. here is how the pilot describes what it felt like to be in the cockpit in that life-and-death moment. >> my first contact with the water was quite smooth. it was not too long after that that the rest of the airplane was making contact with the water, starting to get a heavy drag, extreme amount of vibration in the cockpit. the instrument panels were vibrating so that i couldn't even read it. >> but how did this flight end

up in such a dire situation? after failing to land at st. martin's airport in bad weather, captain dewitt decides to divert first to the near by island of st. thomas and then to st. croix when he finds out it's even closer. but as the plane is climbing away from the airport in a torrential downpour, there's a problem. >> my navigator said to me, my god, look at the fuel gauges. >> because of the wind and the turbulence and conditions, the airplane was rocking back and forth as it was climbing. it was spinning. >> i told him not to worry about it, because it was probably being low on fuel to begin with, and the turbulence is sloshing with the tanks might cause this. >> captain dewitt knows how grave the situation has become. >> he talks to the controller, how far are we away from st. thomas? i've got five minutes of fuel. we're not going to make it to

st. thomas. >> i briefed the crew we were going to st. croix but we were going to set up for a possible ditching. it's dark. it's raining and the sea is really very angry. a lot of white caps. the swells were quite enormous and i had heavy winds. >> all of captain dewitt's years of experience are about to come into play. as he descends, he eyeballs the 10 to 15-foot waves. and he chooses one, knowing full well he has to land on top of it rather than into it, or the plane could break into pieces. time of impact, 3:49 p.m. unlike u.s. airways flight 1549, which skimmed across the top of the hudson river, this plane bobs in and out of the waves. incredibly, captain dewitt says the plane continues to function while in the water. >> the aircraft was rolling to the left, and bobbing up to 35 degrees.

all i did was start flying it like i would in the air, and it rolled out, leveled. and the minute it rolled out level, i sort of popped to the surface just like a cork. >> not all have survived the impact. but those that do escape into shark-infested waters. it's an hour and a half before rescue helicopters begin arriving on the scene. because the plane's p.a. system was not working, the pilot never had a chance to verbally warn passengers to put on seat belts or brace for impact. 40 of 63 survived. according to the ntsb, fewer lives would have been lost had passengers received adequate warning. of the 23 who don't make it, two are children. to this day, it's difficult for the pilot to come to terms with the loss of life. >> the story itself, not very difficult except if i let my

mind wander to the people i lost, yeah. you know, the two kids i lost back then. >> the final ntsb report issued nearly a year later in march 1971 reveals a laundry list of all that went wrong that day. quote "the probable cause of the accident was fuel exhaustion." which resulted from continued unsuccessful attempts to land at st. martin until insufficient fuel remained to reach an alternate airport. other factors, reduced visibility, a condition not reported to the flight. >> i think the biggest thing was that they kept thinking that they would make it, and they kept doing the planning and realizing increasingly that they weren't going to. >> the airplane, after its second approach into st. martin was fuel critical. and to allow a jet to get into that fuel critical of a state is

an error on the part of the crew. >> there's one thing in this accident that cannot be taken away from me, and i will not let anybody take it away from me and that's the responsibility. i take that. i wear the stripes. i made all the decisions. somewhere along the line, i should have been sharp enough to know regardless than to get myself in a situation like that. and to this day, i still haven't found where i could have done anything better. >> captain dewitt was fired from his job six weeks after the ditching. he says no official reason was given. he never flew as a pilot again. coming up next, terrorism in the skies, and another dramatic ditching. this one actually caught on camera. my belly pain and constipation?

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when a commercial jet has to make an emergency landing, the hope is to find a nearby runway. that's not always possible. sometimes in a dire situation, ditching a plane in a body of water is the only choice. we have been reporting nail-biting stories of planes that had to do just that. amazingly, what is often

described as a terrifying life or death experience for passengers doesn't even seem to faze the men in the cockpit. >> there was no fear factor. i had no problems with the crew. everybody was with me. >> we had things to do, and i think that makes a big difference. i always felt that certainly the flight attendants and passengers in back would have had more fear than us, because they had nothing to do. >> water ditchings are rare, but there have been more than flight 1549 and alm 980. january 2002, a boeing 737 operated by indonesia airways flies into severe thunderstorms, and both engines flame out. after three unsuccessful attempts to restart them, the pilot ditches in a shallow section of the indonesian river. 59 on board survive. one flight attendant drowns.

august 2005, an atr 72 turboprop fitted with the wrong fuel gauge runs out of fuel and ditches in the mediterranean sea off the coast of sicily. 16 of 39 on board are killed. seven airline employees, including mechanics, executives, the pilot and co-pilot receive prison sentences of up to ten years. more than half a century ago, there was another ditching, and amazingly the entire incident is caught on camera. the old coast guard film is startling, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

this graphic animation shows what it might have looked like if you had been in the middle of the pacific ocean on october 16th, 1956, watching pan am flight 943 go down in open water. the images are eerily similar to the so-called miracle on the hudson, u.s. airways flight 1549. but there are also major differences. >> it's open ocean, so it's going to be significantly more difficult than, say a river, just because of the swells and so forth. and the difference is that they had hours to plan this. the hudson river crew only had a couple minutes. >> pan am flight 943 leaves honolulu, hawaii, with 31 people onboard and 44 crates of canaries in the cargo hold. known as the sovereign of the skies, the boeing 737 post-war airliner is bound for san

francisco. this is footage of that actual flight filmed by the coast guard. joann marzioli is onboard. >> it was a month before my 3rd birthday. i was with my mother. we were returning to the bay area from the philippines and my mother was very anxious to get back to california to see my father. >> but the reunion would be dramatically delayed. several hours into the flight, nowhere near land, the plane is climbing to 21,000 feet when one of its four engines begins to over speed. its normal hum now becoming a deafening scream. it's the middle of the night and pitch black over the pacific. >> they had a problem with a propeller, and it created so much drag that they were doing okay with it for a while. then they ended up having another engine problem, that the second engine couldn't sustain the high power. it would be an unbelievable set of circumstances.

>> two engines that should be moving the plane forward are now holding it back. it's like driving a car with the emergency brake on. the plane won't make it to san francisco or back to hawaii. the pilot quickly determined he had no choice but to ditch in the pacific. >> my mother mentioned she did not hear any yelling or screaming. she did hear a lot of praying in different languages. the mood was very, very serious. >> the pilot radioed a nearby coast guard cutter for assistance and a plan is formed. it will circle above the ship for the rest of the night, and lightening its fuel load and waiting for daybreak. >> you want to be as light as you can, because with less weight you can go slower, so the impact with the water will be lessened. but also you want to do it with daylight because it will improve your depth perception. you'll be able to put the airplane into the water with a better judgment of exactly how high above the water you are. and that's going to increase the

likelihood of having survivors. >> despite a well-thought out plan, it is an incredibly dangerous situation. and just like the pilots in our other stories, the captain is remarkably calm, even managing to provide comic relief, suggesting passengers light their cigarettes and relax. >> here he is, he is in a situation where he is going to have to ditch the plane, and yet he is able to joke like that. he seems to be very calm and have his sensibilities about him, which if you have to have a pilot that has to ditch a plane, you would want a pilot who has his senses about him. >> the plane remains aloft for nearly five hours operating on two of its four engines. and by morning, conditions are more conducive to ditching. the water is calm. it's a warm 74 degrees. coast guard camera records the scene from below as flight attendants prepare the passengers from above, telling them to rae move their shoes,

tighten their seat belts, put out their cigarettes and put on their life vests. the pilot has the crew move all passengers to seats in the front of the cabin. >> he was probably worried that the tail would break off. and if that was the case, he wanted to make sure we were all safe in the front of the plane. >> there is a ten-minute warning, a one-minute warning, and then three simple words from the pilot. this is it. the plane splashes down at a speed of 103 miles per hour. the impact is brutal. the plane whips around, its tail snapping off, just as the captain had predicted. but neither the film nor the graphic animation can fully express what the people who were on that plane experienced at that moment. >> when it hit the water, it jarred me apart from my mother and i slid from under her legs

and slid under the chair. that was scary for my mother. and she did let out a sound, where she probably did scream "where is my child." the coast guard crew is convinced no one could have survived this. but then, movement. within seconds the front doors are thrown open and life rafts thrown out. in the midst of chaos, joanne is handed off to a coast guardsman, and then reunited with her mother. another moment caught on camera. >> when i saw myself being lifted up out of the life raft by one of the coast guards, i could picture them just smiling and being loving. and then seeing myself on the video, put my arm around one of the coast guards. when i saw my mother looking at me and i reached out for her, to see my mother on the video and to see that stressed look -- i've got to say, that just really made me think about what

happened and what she had to go through. >> the captain is the last person off the plane, which sinks 21 minutes after hitting the water. the only casualties, the 3,300 canaries in the cargo hold, and miraculously, all 31 people onboard survive. >> i feel like it's such a miracle. all of us that survived now have lives and were able to create lives. it's a rarity for commercial jets to end up in the water. when they do, passengers rely on a combination of luck, skill and good judgment in the cockpit. >> experience is something you can never buy. you don't need it often, but when you do, there's no substitute for it.

still to come, a ditching not caused by birds, weather or mechanical failure. this is the work of terrorists, and the deadly ordeal is caught on camera. >> the reply from the pilot, we don't have enough fuel. the response from the hijackers, we don't care. hey, need fast heartburn relief? try cool mint zantac. it releases a cooling sensation in your mouth and throat. zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. try cool mint zantac. no pill relieves heartburn faster.

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that captain was under a different kind of stress than we've seen with the others. >> absolutely. he not only had the issues of putting the plane down in the water, he had people onboard that were trying to kill people on the airplane, including himself. >> it's november 23rd, 1996. ethiopian airlines flight 961 from the ethiopian capital to africa. it turns out to be anything but a normal flight. the pilot sat with a filmmaker whose father was killed in the crash. in the cockpit of a boeing 767 simulator, the captain relives the hellish flight. >> they came into the cockpit. >> how many? >> there were three of them. they took the fire extinguisher and started to beat the co-pilot. go out.

go out. i said, guys, hold on, what's going on? shut up. the flight is hijacked. >> okay. >> claiming to have a bomb, the hijackers demand to be flown to australia. >> this flight is destined to nairobi. we don't carry enough fuel to australia. let's land in nairobi, refuel and then we'll go to australia. >> the hijackers refused to allow the captain to refuel at cities along his route. they want him to fly out over the water towards australia. and the pilot knows that's a losing proposition. so he hugs the coast. >> they said why are you flying over the coast? australia is somewhere in this direction. and i told them, okay, and i started heading. and now the message came, low fuel. >> almost out of fuel, the plane approaches the comoros islands off africa's east coast. as the plane descends, the

hijackers flight the pilot for control of the plane. >> i said this is all finished now. we are all dead people. let me do it my way. i don't know how they did it. >> they disengaged the autopilot. >> disengaged it? >> yeah. they did. and then i had to start flying it myself. >> in the cabin, passengers start to panic. >> when the pilot first made the announcement that the plane was out of fuel in one engine and running out in the other, the plane just broke into pandemonium, and then we heard passengers in the back that panicked, and they all inflated their life jackets. they all put them on and inflated them. >> you could hear this then? >> you heard pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. >> and in the cockpit, the

captain tries as hard as he can to put the plane he nicknamed zulu down safely into the water. >> okay. you have to hold it. hold it. okay zulu, i know you will make it. >> it's traveling about 200 miles per hour, far too fast to ditch safely. but there is an even more serious problem. as this incredible video shows, the wings are not level. a dangerous angle for ditching. watch as the left wing drags along the water with disastrous results. >> they catch the left wing first. you will see it come off. he is fighting to control the airplane. and the engine hits, and it's shedding parts. and then finally it rolls over as it sheds both wings. and if he had been able to hit a little more wings leveled, the chance of survival would have gone up. the biggest problem with this ditching is the fact that it caught the left wing. >> one can only imagine the pandemonium inside the plane. survivors report a series of big impacts. >> when the plane first hit the water, it was quite gentle and

then there was a hard bump. and the third one was a 60-mile-an-hour, worst thing you ever felt kind of thing. and then it was getting progressively worse. and the plane was tumbling, and i said, that's it, i am dead. >> of 175 passengers and crew, 125 perish, including all three hijackers. some victims are standing at the time of impact and are violently thrown to their deaths. many die because they disregard safety instructions and inflated their jackets while still in the plane. as the cabin fills with water they are pushed up against the ceiling and drowned. but as tragic an outcome as it is, it could have been even worse. >> the fact that some people survived, was it good, heroic piloting or were there mistakes made?

>> well, you can monday morning quarterback and say they could have done this better or that better, but under the conditions they faced, this group did well. when we come back, how do young pilots prepare for future gut-check moments? i'm about to find out for myself. we're down. >> that's it. you're in the water. >> we're down. we're down right now. okay. that will get your heart rate going. with my moderate to severe ulcerative colitis, the possibility of a flare was almost always on my mind. thinking about what to avoid, where to go... and how to deal with my uc. to me, that was normal. until i talked to my doctor. she to me that humira helps people like me get uc under control and keep it under control when certain medications haven't worked well enough. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb.

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commercial jets are not designed to land on the water. it's dangerous and potentially deadly. why would a pilot take such a risk? as we have seen, sometimes they simply have little choice. in one case, a giant 767 is felled by terrorists, hijackers that don't care if they or anybody else lives or dies. the pilot does his best to put the plane down safely but the impact kills 125 people out of 175 on board. over the pacific ocean,

another flight has a mechanical problem and ends up in no-man's land, too far to go back or forward. when the plane meets the water, there are violent consequences. the aircraft ends up in pieces. miraculously, everyone onboard survives. over the caribbean sea, a dc-9 has had a staggering chain reaction of bad weather and bad luck, runs out of fuel. the violent impact kills 23 of 63 onboard. and in the most famous case, a jet has the misfortune of running into a flock of canada geese. all onboard survive. what's the takeaway? if your plane runs into a situation where you have to ditch, you want the right person in the cockpit, making sound decisions.

>> i just know that it took every bit of my education, training and experience, along with that of my entire crew, and i think we have nearly 140 years experience at this airline, the five of us, to be able to come up with the number that was 155 on january 15th. >> flight 1549 incident and sully sullenberger has a lot of us thinking about experience. when we see very young people in the cockpit, what should we know about their training and their level of experience? >> i think the point is not so much how many hours does someone have, but what's happened during those hours? what kind of training has gone on? >> i visited the nation's oldest and largest aeronautical university in daytona beach, florida, to see how tomorrow's pilots are being prepared for their own gut-check moments. students here are constantly drilled in just about every type of emergency that could, but rarely does, come up. >> so that when something does

happen, it's sort of like muscle memory. they go back to a mental process that they've already done before. if the engine does quit on a small airplane, they've already done it 15 times in the simulator and in an airplane as well. >> coming up on 3,000. >> both of the engines are going back. you're losing thrust. >> although i'm not a licensed pilot, i've had plenty of instruction. i had a chance to land my own plane in the hudson river, in one of the university's flight simulators. i can tell you one thing, even in a training exercise, it's nerve-racking. drop the nose? >> yes, drop the nose. you will head to 230 knots. >> i can see the hudson river. >> start leveling off. good. now, back pressure. >> we're down. >> that's it. you are in the water.

>> we're down. we're down. okay. whew, that will get your heart rate going! >> yeah. >> six weeks after the real hudson river ditching, the crew of u.s. airways flight 1549 testified before congress. if the takeaway is about having the right person in the cockpit making the right decisions, airline professionals, like captain chesley sullenberger, worry their industry is going in the wrong direction. >> if we do not sufficiently value the air line profession and future pilots are less experienced and less skilled, it logically follows that we will see damage to the public and to our country. >> with all respect to the captain, i'm kind of surrounded by a lot of young people, and they're 18 to 22, who all aspire to be in captain sullenberger's seat one day. i look at them at age 22. they're further along than i was. i was a military aviator. when they get to be our age, they're going to be as good as we are, and probably a little bit better. >> still, u.s. airways first officer jeffrey skiles sits in what he calls the right seat.

as a co-pilot is troubled by the trend he sees, of less experienced pilots being rushed into the cockpit before they may be ready. >> when we were brought up in the industry, you started out and you are flying smaller airplanes and work your way up to bigger ones. but the smaller commuter jets have the same complexity and speeds that we fly at, but people are learning how to fly in six months, and all of a sudden they are in the right seat of one of those airplanes. >> the standards that the pilots meet, and the training, it's still set by the faa. of course, everybody still has to meet that. is there a lessening of experience across the industry? yeah, there is. you don't find as many sullenbergers today as you did ten years ago.

the next thing i remember is looking up and seeing nothing but fire. >> helicopters in serious trouble. a rescue mission turns catastrophic when unpredictable winds push a chopper to its limits. >> i would have thought we're watching these guys roll to their deaths. >> a gorgeous summer day in new york city turns ugly when a sightseeing helicopter collides with a small plane. >> nobody could survive that. it was too quick, too fast, too devastating. >> oh, my god! firefighters flee a mountaintop to avoid lightning, ono