All Were Saved: After Jet Lands In Hudson River

There is goodness in the USA and there are miracles. This one played out on live TV in front of an international audience during the mid-afternoon of January 15 in New York City.

As thousands of commercial airline flights depart from U.S. airports each day, one would not think anything was particularly special about US Airways Flight #1549 that departed at 3:26 p.m. of January 15 from LaGuardia Airport in New York City en route to Charlotte, North Carolina.......except for one thing.

Pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.

"He is the consummate pilot," Sully's wife, Lorrie Sullenberger, told the New York Post shortly after his crew of four fellow employees and 150 passengers were rescued alive after he set the plane down upon the icy cold waters of the Hudson River near 48th Street in midtown Manhattan in a flight operations procedure known as a hard-water landing. Pilot Sullenberger, an airline safety expert and NASA consultant, today was hailed as a hero by the 154 other souls on board that aircraft and also recognized by other observers for his training experience.

"He did precisely what he was trained to do," one aviation expert said in the hours immediately following the accident.

Good training? Experience? The intervention of angels, or a Higher Being?

I believe what the world saw occur the afternoon of January 15 was the product of professional training, the wisdom of experience and the hand of Divine intervention. What a blessed moment it was indeed for the crew of five and the 150 passengers aboard Flight #1549. And to think of their many family members, the co-workers and neighbors, the fellow church goers and literally hundreds if not thousands of lives that were, directly and indirectly touched in such a positive manner on this magnificent winter day in New York City.

"We heal from tragedy in our lives," a friend reminded me earlier today.

The miracle near 48th Street could have occurred anywhere in the world, but instead it occurred where it was most appreciated and perhaps where it was most needed -- near the site of the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001.

In the days ahead, many of us likely will be preoccupied by winter weather, the outcome of sporting events, the economy, the news of the day, a petty jealously, a stupid argument with a partner or family member --- maybe even preoccupied by the driving habits of others, what to select from a restaurant menu and which TV program to watch next?

Before today's Miracle on the Hudson is forgotten -- think if your loved one, your co-worker, your family member, your friend, your neighbor, your distant relative, your jerk in-law were on that plane January 15 -- how would you feel knowing they survived? How would you feel had they perished? This is the reality we need more often to quietly embrace within our hearts and our souls and to periodically keep in our thoughts --- the interaction and quality of relationship we want to maintain with another. There remains goodness in this world and we need to look perhaps a little closer within ourselves and toward one another to see it --- and maybe, simply to remember and to acknowledge that miracles do happen and we are that miracle in someone's eyes and in someone's life.