Updated: 01/26/2009 3:25 PM KSTP.com | Print Story
By: Art Barron

BARRON: Jetliner into the Hudson

When I first heard of a plane down in the Hudson river, I thought, oh no!  At first that's all that was reported on the wires, and the cable news outlets. Usually these things don't have positive endings. We usually conjure up images of scattered wreckage and flames.

When the first video and live pictures came in, most of us couldn't believe what we saw. The Airbus 320 plane was not only intact, it was floating, with passengers and crew standing on both wings waiting to be rescued from numerous vessels racing toward them. Dread instantly turned into Joy. There were survivors, then the best news came as we learned everyone survived with perhaps the worst injury being a broken leg suffered by one of the flight attendants. What we saw were images of people helping people, heroism, and a response that was top notch.

These are the kinds of news events we don't get enough of in the media.

 It is a positive story, some call it a miracle. The outcome of this is what New Yorkers and the rest of the country needed to see after those permanent images of two planes tearing through the twin towers several years ago. We need to emblazen these positive images of people who survived this accident, their smiles and hugs with loved ones... into our minds. It is good medicine. It gives us a sense of how great people are, and how a tragedy was averted. How a potential outcome of catastrophic proportions punctuated with pain and suffering, ended so much differently.

I thought of the 35-W bridge collapse and rescue. All of the great people who helped those trapped in their cars and on the bridge.. saving lives and creating an instant and permanent bond.

It makes me feel good when I listen to the first responders, and how they did a superb job. I can't wait to hear from the pilots and crew. I want to see them get their medals for the actions... meet again with passengers and family members. Think about it, so many things could have brought about a different ending. The plane was flying over some of the most populated areas in the world. It was huge glider after it lost its engines. The pilot had to think fast, losing altitude, he figured there was not enough time to make an emergency landing at the closest runway in New Jersey. He was only 900 feet high when he flew over the Washington bridge. He cleared it with ease, but then he had to make sure he kept the aircraft clear of others in the river. Keeping the nose slightly up and coming in at 170 miles an hour, he also had to think about possible cross winds and make sure he didn't land with one of the wing tips dragging in the water. This is a great moment in time to cherish. It's something that we need to see, and absorb in wake of all the other troubling events in the world.