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Of course, it was no miracle. ABC's in-house aviation consultant John Nance debriefed anchor Charles Gibson. The decision to ditch the jetliner in water rather than attempting to fly to an airport was "excellent," Nance decided, because of the risk of running out of air speed and altitude. "You are in a tremendously populated area there, a lot of houses, and it is going to be a catastrophe." The textbook training for pilots is to land "nose up, gently putting it into the water." That way "you are not going to breach the fuselage and you are not going to breach the wings and therefore you have got buoyancy." NBC's Tom Costello reported that the Airbus A-320 is designed with a "ditching button" that seals valves in case of a watery landing. "Since the plane is tightly sealed and pressurized, water would have a hard time seeping in, at least at first."
As for the speed of the rescue, NBC's Mike Taibbi explained there were "dozens of commuter ferries and tugboats that became first responders moving quickly…even before the Coast Guard and firefighters arrived on the scene." CBS' Randall Pinkston reported that the commuter ferries "pulled up within minutes." The passengers survived because they "climbed on the wings as the plane filled with water," ABC's John Berman pointed out. The upshot, noted NBC's Robert Bazell, was that "very few people ended up in the drink. They might have gotten wet…but they did not get into the water where hypothermia can take over much more actively." Bazell reported that he had checked with New York City hospitals and "there were very few people admitted."
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