tout est bien qui fini bien

view on the hudson river from an office building in times square - around 3:42pm

“We’ve had a miracle on 34th Street, I believe now we’ve had a miracle on the Hudson,” said Governor Paterson in tonight news conference. What an incredible story than the one the crash of US Airways flight 1549.

It took place right in front of my office window. And it did take me close to 15min. before deciding to snap those two pictures. Quality is very bad: dear iPhone is not meant for this kind of long-distance reportage.

This picture was taken from my office window around 3:42pm. For those of you used to my little universe, you'll recognize the building on the right. It is The New York Times building. To its left, you can see an ensemble of boats. These are ferries and rescue boats around the fuselage of the plane. You can still see the tiny little triangle of the tail. Well, you'll have to click and enlarge the picture to see it. I've added notes on the pictures too - so if you click on it and move your mouse around the picture, you'll see them.
The plane actually crashed to the right of The New York Times building (see picture below - click to see the notes that will show you where). In less than 15min, it drifted to the left of the building.

One of my colleague saw the plane crashing into the river. I saw it maybe a minute or two later: you could see the plane pretty well, with its wings on the water. And on those wings you could clearly see little black dots (passengers standing outside ... brrr...). Then very quickly, ferry boats from Manhattan and New Jersey congregating near the site, helicopters flying above, ... If you click on the above picture, I've added notes to indicate where the ferry terminals are. And on the first picture, notes where the heliport is.
Let's put it this way: if you need to land a plane somewhere on the Hudson, you want to land it exactly there. Yes, right there: midway between two ferry terminals, seconds from the heliport... the perfect spot. And you want to have that very same pilot behind the wheel.
Phew!!!
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• http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/plane-crashes-into-hudson-river/?hp
• http://www.flickr.com/search/?ss=2&w=all&q=hudson+river+crash&m=text [much better pictures on Flickr]