Pilot: 'Sickening' feeling before N.Y. river landing

[February 06, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Hero pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger says the moments after both engines of US Airways Flight 1549 lost power were the worst of his life.

He tells Katie Couric in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview it was "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling" he's ever had.

Sullenberger says his first reaction when birds flew into the plane's engines was disbelief.

He glided the Airbus A320 over the George Washington Bridge and into the Hudson River. All 155 people aboard survived.

The captain praises New York City's first responders. He says "thank you seems totally inadequate" and he has "a debt of gratitude" he fears he may never be able to repay.

The interview is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. EST Sunday.

[Associated Press]

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