'Miracle on the Hudson' flight survivors mark decade of thankfulness

It’s been 10 years, but there isn’t anything Tripp Harris doesn’t remember about the cold January day he cheated death on US Airways flight 1549. The jolt when the plane collided with a flock of geese and the engines stopped moments after takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. The smoke filling the cabin. The electric, burning smell. The panic from the people around him. The calm, steady tone of Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger telling everyone to brace for impact as he steered the Airbus A320-214 into the frigid waters of the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009. And, of course, he knows the happy ending of the “Miracle on the Hudson”: All 155 people aboard survived. Harris has also never forgotten what that day taught him about what really mattered: his wife and then-2-year-old son. It’s a common refrain among survivors, of how that day led to big life changes and small everyday choices, and to feeling joy more readily. But some also speak of the anxiety that can still rise every time they’re on a flight. Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia a decade ago Tuesday, with Sullenberger’s co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles, at the controls, three flight attendants and 150 passengers aboard. Plane and birds collided at 3,000 feet. Both engines stopped. Sullenberger took the controls and told air traffic controllers he couldn’t make it back to LaGuardia. His choices were a small airport for private aircraft in New Jersey — possibly too far — or the river. Sullenberger picked the water.<br/>