One Year Ago Today... How Time Flies..

(CBS) It was one year ago that Capt. Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger landed US Airways flight 1549 safely in New York's Hudson River -- saving 155 lives.

As it flew 3,000 feet over one of the most densely populated areas of the planet, a flock of geese struck the plane, causing it to lose all power. Sullenberger was faced with a possible catastrophe. With brains and courage, the seasoned pilot brought his plane down -- and kept it intact -- on the river's frigid waters.

Sullenberger told CBS' "60 Minutes," "I think, in many ways, as it turned out, my entire life up to that moment had been a preparation to handle that particular moment." In a matter of minutes, the plane was evacuated, and ferry boats and first responders rushed to the scene. Not one person was killed.

The crew and passengers of flight 1549 forged a bond that day that's still strong. And on "The Early Show" Friday, the passengers, crew and first responders came together again one year later to remember the day that truly proved to be a "Miracle on the Hudson." Sullenberger told "Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith it feels like much less than a year since it happened. "I feel like I've lived 10 normal lifetimes in this last year," Sullenberger said.

As for reuniting a year later, he said, "It's like the best high school reunion you could imagine. We were just talking about that -- who has come the farthest, who has changed the most. We have so much to be grateful for, and it's absolutely wonderful to once again have a chance to celebrate such a wonderful outcome with this great group of people."

Sullenberger's co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, said he remembers the shock of that day most. However, he said he realized that day just how preparations for emergencies could actually lead to success.

"Both of us got right to work," he said. "We used our training. We used our procedures. We used the experience that we've built up over decades between the two of us to handle the emergency."

First responders Sally Phipps, an American Red Cross volunteer who also responded to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, and Capt. Vince Lombardi, of N.Y. Waterways, also appeared on "The Early Show."

Phipps said when she arrived on the scene, she was just grateful that she could give her supplies to survivors.

Lombardi said his first thought when he saw the plane was, "Why is there a jet in the water?" He added his second thought was, "OK, let's go."

Passenger John Howell said the day was a "sequence of miraculous events."

"It's hard to find the words to describe the feeling when you're looking out the window and the engines are on fire or there's no engines at all and you're looking down at the river and you recognize that you were in a situation that's not likely to have a good outcome -- and then a few minutes later, you start to realize, 'Wow, we're going to be all right. We're going to walk away from this.'"

So Sad. And Scary Video.

The exact moment when a tourist helicopter collided with a small plane over the Hudson River Saturday was captured by a tourist on a boat.

WASHINGTON - The air traffic controller at Teterboro Airport was on the phone with his girlfriend during the mid-air collision over the Hudson River.

His supervisor had wandered off and wasn't even in the tower.

Horrified officials called their actions "unacceptable," even though they were not blamed for Saturday's crash.

Both controllers - who were not immediately identified - have been suspended and will likely be fired.

Crash probes by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration revealed the two controllers seriously deviated from their assignments at the time of the collision.

...."The controller gave Altman two choices of route, and he chose a straight shot down the Hudson.

NTSB chairwoman Debbie Hersman has said the controller told Altman to switch his radio over to the Newark tower - and gave the correct frequency - but Newark never made contact.

The controller was also on a separate line with his girlfriend.

"The handoff was never made," an aviation source said.

Mayor Bloomberg was alarmed by the development.

"If true, this is an unacceptable breach of the trust we put in those who watch the city's sky," he said.

New clues to the crash may be contained in a dramatic tourist video of the tragedy that surfaced Thursday on NBC News.

The footage, taken from a boat on the river, shows Altman desperately trying to lift his left wing to avoid hitting the helicopter.

Meanwhile, the remains of the five Italian tourists were welcomed home to Bologna by a large, emotional crowd of friends, relatives and mourners.

Silvia Rigamonti, who lost her husband and youngest son, threw herself at her husband's casket.

FAA Suspends 2 Air Traffic Controllers Over Hudson Crash

(CNN) -- The Federal Aviation Administration has suspended two air traffic controllers from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport over Saturday's collision of two aircraft over the Hudson that killed nine people, a spokeswoman said Thursday.

The controller handling the flight of a Piper PA-32 Saratoga carrying three people "was involved in apparently inappropriate conversations on the telephone at the time of the accident," spokeswoman Laura Brown said in a written statement.

In addition, "the supervisor was not present in the building as required," she said.

"While we have no reason to believe at this time that these actions contributed to the accident, this kind of conduct is unacceptable and we have placed the employees on administrative leave and have begun disciplinary proceedings," she said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is working with the FAA in investigating the Piper's collision with a sightseeing helicopter.

"These are serious violations of the FAA regulations," said Mary Schiavo, former inspector general for the Transportation Department.

The controller was on the phone with his girlfriend "after he cleared the pilot for takeoff," a source with knowledge of the investigation told CNN. "He was still on the phone at the time of the crash."

Killed aboard the plane were the owner and pilot, Steven Altman, 60, of Ambler, Pennsylvania; his brother, Daniel Altman, 49, of Dresher, Pennsylvania; and Daniel Altman's 16-year-old son, Douglas.

The Piper took off from a Philadelphia-area airfield Saturday morning and landed at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport before taking off again, this time bound for Ocean City, New Jersey.

The NTSB has said the pilot of the small plane was cleared electronically and handed off to Newark, New Jersey, air traffic controllers, a standard procedure.

However, Newark's control tower never got a verbal response from the pilot of the small plane. Controllers lost contact with the plane at 11:53 a.m., when it was at an altitude of about 1,100 feet, the NTSB said.

The controller put on leave was described as a long-time employee, the source said.

He and the supervisor face disciplinary action that could include their firing.

Also Thursday, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said the agency may re-issue advisories to pilots using the busy airspace over the Hudson River.

Pilots are urged to use a radio frequency dedicated to traffic in that corridor, to fly no faster than 140 knots, and to turn on their lights as they enter that airspace.

The victims aboard the helicopter were the pilot and five tourists from Bologna, Italy, part of a group of 10 Bologna-area residents who were in New York to help a couple celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary, said Giovanni Castellaneta, Italy's ambassador to the United States.

The celebrating husband and one of the couple's sons were killed in the crash, but the wife skipped the sightseeing flight to go shopping, another son told Italian news media.

The victims from Bologna were Michele Norelli, 51; Norelli's son Filippo Norelli, 16; Fabio Gallazzi, 49; Gallazzi's wife, Tiziana Pedroni, 44; and Gallazzi's son, Giacomo Gallazzi, 15.

Michele Norelli's wife, Silvia Rigamonti, decided to visit New York stores instead of seeing its sights from above, the couple's eldest son, Davide Norelli, told Italian media.

The pilot of the helicopter -- a Eurocopter AS350 -- was Jeremy Clarke, 32. He had worked for Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours for about 1½ years and had logged 2,700 helicopter flight hours, NTSB Chairman Debbie Hersman said.

The helicopter was taking the five Italians on a 12-minute sightseeing tour around New York and had taken off from a heliport in midtown Manhattan shortly before the crash, Hersman said.

Hersman called the area "very complex airspace" near three major airports and a variety of other general aviation facilities.

In an effort to determine just how complex, the Federal Aviation Administration found that, in each of the eight days prior to the crash, an average of 225 aircraft operated at or below 1,100 feet within a 3-mile radius of the accident site, she said. Below that altitude, aircraft can operate under visual flight regulations.

The wreckage of the helicopter was pulled from the Hudson on Sunday, nearly intact. Investigators will focus on radio communications along the air corridor at the time of the crash and will examine any images contributed by the public.

Neither aircraft was required to carry electronic data recorders -- often referred to as "black boxes" -- that record cockpit voices and flight information on larger planes. But electronic navigational devices on board might retain information that could help investigators, Hersman said.

Liberty Helicopter Sightseeing Tours, since 1995, has had eight accidents and one "incident," after which the NTSB made a number of safety recommendations, Hersman said.

"I think the fact that we are here today shows there is a lot of work that still needs to be done," she said.

Saturday's crash was the company's first involving fatalities.

Marcia Horowitz, a spokeswoman for the tour operator, said Liberty executives were working with investigators.

"The company is focusing its efforts on cooperating with the NTSB and giving as much information as it can," Horowitz said. "At this time, their priority is to help with the family of their pilot and, of course, the families that were involved in the accident."

Air Traffic Tapes of Hudson Plane Crash Released

The story
Minutes after he reported hitting birds and losing power in both engines, the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 calmly told an air traffic controller the plane would ditch into the Hudson River.
"We can't do it," pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger said at 3:29 p.m. on January 15, in response to efforts to land the plane at New Jersey's Teterboro airport, according to a recording released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration.
"We're gonna be in the Hudson," Sullenberger said, about three and a half minutes after the Airbus A320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport.
"I'm sorry, say again," said the controller, from New York Tracon, a radar facility on Long Island that handles flights after they depart from LaGuardia or Teterboro airports.. Listen to the pilot talk to the controllers
There is no response.

- CNN VIDEO HERE -