CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It's a story that captivated the nation: The Miracle on the Hudson. For those who don't remember, that was when US Airways Flight 1549 from New York's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, took off but had to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009. All 155 people onboard survived, and Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles were heralded as heroes.
RELATED: 'Brace for impact' | Looking back on the Miracle on the Hudson's Charlotte connection 15 years later
Since the flight was bound for this area, WCNC Charlotte sent a crew to New York City hours after it happened. We spoke to that news crew to reflect on what it was like to witness and report on history as it unfolded.
When you walk into a newsroom, you'll often see a wall of TVs mounted showing various different news feeds or stations. But on Jan. 18, 2009, all the televisions showed the same images.
“I wasn’t sure what I was looking at," veteran reporter Rad Berky admitted. "It looked like a plane in the water, and people standing on the wing. [Then,] the bosses came over and said 'You and Jen are going to New York to cover this.'”
Within the hour of the Miracle on the Hudson happening, Berky and photographer Jen Kiser were at the Charlotte airport, ready to fly to New York City to cover this historic event that had a Carolina connection. Both Kiser and Berty thought they were headed to cover a terrible tragedy.
“We had to be live at 11 p.m.] with something, so I thought if we could get to where the plane was, but then I thought were gonna have to go to hospitals and [talk to] the families at the hospitals, some would be some mourning, some would be praying,” Berky said.
Berky called quickly to check in with his wife who was glued to the news coverage in Charlotte, which how he learned all the passengers had survived.
“And she said, 'As far as we know, everybody is alive!'" Berky recalled. "So when we get there, instead of what we thought could possibly be one of the worst tragedies we would ever go through, everybody was alive, everybody was happy. Nobody expected it.”
Kiser remembers the bitter cold of the day, and the shocking visuals of the plane floating in the river.
“Getting up there in the nick of time to do the 11 [p.m.] news and standing out there, freezing, with this massive plane behind us sticking out of the water,” Kiser remembered.
Berky was also struck by the sight of the giant plane still in one piece in the Hudson River.
“I thought, 'How did this stay together? How did this plane stay together?'" Berky wondered.
Kiser still appreciates the magnitude of what they got to witness firsthand.
“Everyone lived, [and] we were able to be a part of history – happy history,” Kiser said.
”Absolutely part of history," Berky added. “You just felt New York City take a breath. When you think back 15 years ago, that’s a lot closer to 9/11 then where we are now. To see a plane flying erratically around NYC, that sent chills up some spines of people, but then to find out it's gonna land in the Hudson River, and the man in the cockpit managed to bring it in safely without that plane braking apart, you just can’t imagine ever telling a story like that.”
Even that night, people started calling it a miracle.
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.