CHARLOTTE, N.C.-- Vicki Barnhardt is used to the questions by now.
She s done the interviews, she s told friends about it, and she s shared her stories and her feelings about that day two years ago the day her plane made an emergency landing on the icy Hudson River.
It s called the Miracle on the Hudson the day Flight 1549 from New York to Charlotte hit a flock of geese that killed both engines of the Airbus A320 plane.
The pilots, Chesley Sully Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles, safely guided the plane onto its belly in the middle of the icy Hudson River. All 155 people on board 150 passengers and five crew members survived.
Barnhardt was sitting in the very last row, in seat 26c. She knew something was wrong, but couldn t tell what. Then she heard Sullenberger say, Brace for impact.
I thought that was it! she said. As soon as I heard 'brace for impact' and to the point of hitting, I thought 'That s it, it's over, we're done'.
She felt the tail end of the plane hit the water. Barnhardt said it felt like a bad car accident, followed by cold water surrounding her feet.
She tries to read a passage from a book called Brace for Impact, that she contributed a chapter for. She gets choked up.
I can't read that, she whispers. She tries again, louder. I can't read it. I can't read that part.. but I can read more on another page.. she offers.
Little things remind Barnhardt of that day two years ago, when she didn t know if she d live or die. After impact, she stood in line waiting to get off the plane as water rushed in. She reads more of the passage.
It says I was standing in waist- deep water in the aisle of the plane firmly believing we had sunk or we were sinking, she reads.
She thinks about her husband and two children, ages 4 and 8.
She makes a quick call to her husband no answer -- and leaves a message.
My husband Mike erased the phone message of the last words I thought I would ever speak to my family, she reads, voice dropping to a whisper again, because he didn't want to hear that over and over again.. he didn't want to be reminded.
Even though she can tell the story of the safe landing without getting emotional, reading her words from the book is difficult.
He didn't want to keep such a visceral reminder of that horrifying winter afternoon that he believed he had just become ... a widower ...
She falters, then goes on. But you can't push a button to erase all the pain, the terror, the deep, deep sadness. Those echoes still live with me. I'm not sure they'll ever completely dissolve.
Even after two years, it s an emotional moment. But she asks herself why she survived, and says there s a reason for everything.
It could be very simple, and whatever the reason it's an important reason, she said. Maybe just to be here and be a mom.
