Today marks the 16th anniversary of the "Miracle on the Hudson," the 2009 incident in which US Airways Flight 1549, piloted by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, was forced to land on the Hudson River without any casualties among the 155 on board. Occasionally referred to as a miracle, the event is recalled not just for the act of the flight crew but for the community of first responders and ferry operators who sprung into action on that chilly January afternoon. In looking back on that day, Sullenberger expressed a desire on Twitter to hear from those affected, a message that was reported by ABC7NY.
One such figure pivotal to the rescue was Michael Duffy, then a new captain on the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises, who played a significant role in the rescue operation that day, his vessel quickly repurposed to pluck passengers from the precarious wings of the slowly sinking aircraft the plane had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport and was en route to Charlotte, North Carolina when a flock of geese brought its journey to an abrupt end. "They were lucky," Duffy said in a recent interview with The Post, referencing the lack of ice on the river that would have dramatically worsened the situation.
The incident's timing was fortuitous as Duffy remarked, recalling it occurred between days when ice could have prevented the plane's safe landing on the water's surface. According to his interview with The Post, Duffy's first command upon learning of the plane's descent was to disembark his 51 paying customers to prepare for the unplanned mission. FDNY and NYPD first responders, along with divers, were brought aboard Duffy's boat to the crash site, transforming the sightseeing cruiser into an essential part of the city's emergency response.
While New York Waterways ferries swiftly arrived to aid the evacuation, 14 vessels in total coordinating the retrieval of 143 survivors, Duffy's experience as both a captain and a firefighter lent a hand in the organization and quiet efficiency of the rescue efforts where his boat served as a makeshift medical triage and divers searched the cold Edwardian waters for any remaining passengers. "It's just another one of the events that humanity is actually human, that people come together – [the world] is not as negative as what you see and what you hear," Duffy told The Post, in what was a vivid reminder of the indomitable spirit that rises in times of shared peril and the innate compulsion to assist that drives first responders.
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