US Airways pilot saw 'big, dark brown birds' before crash

New York: The pilot of a crippled US Airways jetliner says he made a split-second decision to land in the Hudson River because trying to return to the airport after birds knocked out both engines could have led to a "catastrophic" crash in a populated neighbourhood.

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger National Transportation Safety Board Saturday that in the few minutes he had to decide where to land the powerless plane, he felt it was "too low, too slow" and near too many buildings to go anywhere else.

The pilot and his first officer provided their first account to NTSB investigators on Saturday of what unfolded inside the cockpit of US Airways Flight 1549 after it slammed into a flock of birds and lost both engines.

All 155 crew and passengers on board the flight from LaGuardia Airport survived what's being called the “miracle on the Hudson.''

Sullenberger said “big, dark brown birds'' filled his windshield before robbing the plane he was flying of all thrust and forcing the craft to ditch in the river.

The National Transportation Safety Board's Kitty Higgins, speaking at a press conference, said the pilots described to her agency what began as a normal flight on Jan. 15, with First Officer Jeffrey B. Skiles at the controls.

At 3,000 to 5,000 feet, Skiles noticed a flock of birds to the right “in a perfect line formation,'' Higgins said.

Sullenberger had his head down monitoring instruments.

Both men heard “booms,'' and Sullenberger said he “smelt burning birds.'' The captain took the controls from Skiles, Higgins said.

US radar data and witness accounts support early reports that bird strikes may have forced the splashdown. The radar data showed the plane intersected “a string of primary targets'' shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia bound for Charlotte, North Carolina, Higgins said earlier.

Meanwhile, a crane began trying to raise the submerged jet late on Saturday evening.