BRACE FOR IMPACT

On January 15, 2009, U.S. Airways Flight 1549 made an emergency landing in NYC's Hudson River. I was sitting at my desk at 30 Rock when I got the news. Having long been obsessed with all things aviation, my work was cut out for me: I sprung out of my seat like a Jack-in-the-box, left the building, and despite the 19- degree temperature, I sprinted 15-20 minutes to the Hudson River. There I stood outside in the cold and watched the story unfold in real time.

Right away MSNBC decided to do a "crash" (quick-turnaround "Insta-doc") about Flight 1549. I suggested that we flesh the story out to other planes that had had made emergency landings in the water. (The technical aviation term for this is "ditching.") I found other instances and then tracked down survivors, including a pilot of a DC-9 who had ditched in the Caribbean decades earlier.

Another plane that ditched, albeit unintentionally, was an Ethiopian Airlines 767 bound from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. The plane had been hijacked. Pilots tried to tell the a-hole hijackers that the plane was going to run out of fuel. They refused to listen and the plane ended up in the waters right off the Comoros Islands, near Madagascar.

I interviewed Salim Amin, whose father, a famous African journalist, was killed trying to save his fellow passengers.

I discovered other little-known accidents, including Pan Am Flight 943, which ditched in the open Pacific on October 16, 1956. Incredibly, there were no fatalities. One of the survivors was a 3-year-old girl named Joanne Marzioli, who was returning to the Bay area from the Philippines. I tracked her down. Her interview is incredibly emotional.

One of the other cool things I did for this story: Lester Holt and I went down to U.S. Airways' Charlotte, NC training center, where he attempted to land a plane in similar circumstances in a flight simulator. You'll have to watch to see how he fared.

You'll be surprised to learn how many ditchings there have been, even though the A320 "Sully" flew is likely the only one you've ever heard of.

Видео BRACE FOR IMPACT канала CAROLINE SOMMERS