Box 0868 USAIR flight 1549 Operations of Marine One "Fireboat McKean"
Upon conferring with Capt. Johnson, Lt Piambino ordered the remaining crew of the Fireboat McKean to ready the boat for response to the reported crash site. Due to the gravity of the situation and the necessity of splitting up Marine l's crew for use on the fast Alpha boat all members on the Fireboat would have to do double duty this day.
As Lt. Piambino boarded the Fireboat McKean he asked the Manhattan dispatcher VIA the Dept. Radio if any land units were enroute to supplement the Fireboats manpower and the answer was "not at this time".
Lt. Piarnbino was now faced with making a decision as to request supplemental manpower, which would significantly delay the response to the crash site or leave the berth immediately. With the possibility of mass casualties in the water the decision was made to leave opting to effect rescue ASAP if necessary.
Two of the three Engine room crew were ordered up on deck to take the place of the Firefighters that were operating on M-l Alpha leaving the most experienced Marine Engineer to operate the engine room alone. This is a task that normally requires three people. Marine Engineer Burmester started up the engines and maintained this position until it was necessary for him to be up on deck to assist in deck operations. Marine engineer Astegher and Marine Wiper Steinhardt untied the Fireboat McKean allowing us to respond without delay.
Shortly after leaving the berth Capt. Johnson on M-l Alpha (the first FDNY unit on the actual scene) radioed Lt. Piambino confirming a commercial airliner in the water with passengers out of the fuselage standing on the wings.
Considering this information Lt. Piambino had Marine Wiper Steinhardt ready all self inflating life rafts for deployment into the water and instructed Marine Engineer Astegher to don the Mustang cold water entry suit and prepare to enter the water to assist passengers into the rafts if necessary.
On arrival Lt. Piambino observed NY Waterway ferries evacuating passengers from one side ofthe aircraft and M -1 Alpha evacuating what seemed to be the last of the passengers from the opposite side.
It was now evident that immediate water rescue was not necessary; however it was not known if any passengers were still inside the aircraft. Lt. Piambino radioed M-l Alpha and asked if all passengers were out of the aircraft and Capt. Johnson replied he could not confirm that.
Anticipating that the aircraft would sink at any moment, possibly with injured people inside Lt. Piambino instructed Marine Pilot Spadaro to come along side the aircraft with the intention of securing it to the Fireboat.
At this time Lt. Piambino ordered Marine Engineer Burmester up on deck to assist with the securing of the aircraft. Two teams were formed, Lt. Piambino and Wiper Steinhardt, ME. Astegher and ME. Burmester to deploy mooring lines around the aircraft. M-l enlisted the aid of Marine Co. 6 to accomplish this task and was successful in placing lines around the tail section and through the front cockpit doors. This action was not without risk, a 60,000 lb aircraft tied to the fireboat would present a possibility of rolling the McKean over if the aircraft should suddenly sink, so provisions were made on deck to break away fast if it became necessary. Securing the aircraft to the fireboat allowed for a secondary search of the fuselage.
After securing the aircraft M -1 was asked by the incident commander if the Fireboat McKean could keep the aircraft from drifting south in the current and the reply was "Yes". When the secondary search was made with negative results M-l was asked if we could bring the aircraft into shallow water on the Manhattan side of the river. Lt. Piambino instructed Marine Pilot Spadaro to attempt to do this.
Pilot Spadaro with great skill slowly accomplished this by using the effect of the southerly moving current. This was difficult due to the way the aircraft was secured to the Fireboat. If the lines were removed from the aircraft to reposition the boat for a better towing position there was a possibility the aircraft would sink.
It was decided by Lt. Piambino and Pilot Spadaro that M -1 would attempt to take it in as is. This required us to steer to Manhattan and shallow water stern first. Originally starting the operation at approximately 43st., Pilot Spadaro towed the aircraft on a shallow angle into shallow water near Battery Park City where smaller boats took over and pushed the aircraft into a position near North Cove where it eventually became a salvage operation.
For the next three days M-1 rotated as a fire watch in the recovery effort. FDNY involvement concluded after M-1 escorted the aircraft which was placed on a barge and towed to New Jersey where responsibility was turned over to New Jersey Fire Authorities.
Box 0868 USAIR flight 1549 Operations of Marine 1 Alpha 27' Fast Response Safeboat
At 1531 hrs on 1/15/09 Marine Co. 1 received a teleprinter message directing us to resrond to box 0868 for a plane in the water. Reported location, "the Hudson River and 50th Street."
Weather conditions were as follows; Air temperature 22 degrees, wind NE@ 10-15 MPH producing a wind chill of 5 degrees F. current ebbing at 2 knots, water temperature 40 degrees F.
As Capt. Johnson and members prepared to respond gathering radios, equipment, and donning foul weather flotation gear numerous calls were coming in over VHF, Police SOD, and FD dispatch radio reporting an aircraft crash landing in the Hudson River. This many reports indicated a high probability that the original dispatch information was accurate. Capt. Johnson realizing the urgency and potential for mass casualties quickly conferred with Lt. Piambino who had reported early for duty for the 6x9 tour due to predicted snow. Both Officer agreed that each of them should respond to the incident which would enable them to immediately deploy both vessels of Marine Co.l. Lt. Piambino responded using the Fireboat McKean and a crew made up of Pilot Spadaro, Marine Engineer Burmester, Marine Engineer Astegher, and Marine Wiper Steinhardt. Capt. Johnson responded with Marine 1 "Alpha" manned by Helmsman FF Rizzo, and Rescue Swimmer FF Sullivan. Marine 1 's operational capabilities include M-I (the Fireboat McKean,) a 129' vessel which cruises at 14 MPH, and "or" Marine 1 "Alpha" a 27' fast response rescue boat with limited firefighting capabilities which cruises at 40+ MPH.
Marine 1" Alpha" departed their berth with the Fireboat McKean right behind. While responding both vessels continued to receive radio transmissions from VHF, Police SOD, and FD dispatchers confirming a plane crash in Hudson River. FF Sullivan quickly donned The Mustang cold water rescue suit and gathered the necessary tether line with the anticipation of entering the water. Just prior to M1-A's 10-84 Batt 9 transmitted a 1060 for an aircraft crash landed at a revised location of West 43rd St. and the Hudson River.
Members ofM-I "Alpha" were now able to see a large commercial jet aircraft crashed in the river, its passengers crowded on the left wing of the aircraft and many more grouped on the aircrafts emergency exit slides alongside the plane. Capt. Johnson immediately transmitted to dispatcher; " M -1 A to Manhattan this is confirmed, we have a commercial jet airliner in the water 2 ferries alongside, M-IA is pulling up alongside to effect rescue. M-I is responding as well". Capt Johnson also radioed the Lt. Piambino VIA handitalki informing him of his visual of the scene.
Capt. Johnson ordered Helmsman FF Rizzo to approach the plane slowly, seeing large amounts of debris in water. He feared that there may be victims in the debris. The victims were precariously struggling to keep from slipping off wing, battling wind and current, standing in knee deep water shivering from the severe low temperature of the air, and water pleading anxiously for help. While approaching, FF Sullivan tossed PFDs (life jackets) to many passengers on wing who were not equipped with one while Capt. Johnson instructed passengers to remain calm and that they would carefully be boarded on to the bow of his vessel. M-IA reached as close to the wing as they could nosing in their starboard bow between the wing and fuselage of the plane.
One by one the victims had to make a short jump to the boat, many landing with their chest onto the top rail of our vessel and being pulled up the rest of the way by Capt. Johnson and FF Sullivan. After boarding numerous victims, some of the victims at the far end of the wing became somewhat panicked, fearing they would not be picked up, proceeded to jump off the wing swimming towards M-l "Alpha's stern. Helmsman FF Rizzo observing this and realizing the immediate danger of them approaching our boat towards the engines with the props turning was forced to bring engines in to neutral. Quickly FF Rizzo left the helm to assist victims onto rear of M-IA.
As this was occurring one of the victims of the group made her attempt to hop on to the top rail of our vessel from the wing, she fell somewhat short landing in the water up to her chest but luckily both Capt. Johnson and FF Sullivan had hold of her hands. They struggled repeatedly to lift her on to the boat. This struggling was due to M-IA losing position after the engines were put into neutral to protect the victims swimming to the boats stern This loss of position from the wing was causing the victim to be pinned between M-IA and the fuselage of aircraft. The fear now was that if we lost grip of her she would be in a very dangerous position between the fuselage and M-IA or swept under either our vessel or wing of plane.
Acting quickly Helmsman FF Rizzo had successfully loaded the victims who swam to the rear ofM-lA and was now able to put motors in gear and regain his position at wing of the aircraft. Capt. Johnson and FF Sullivan were now able to make another attempt to hoist victim on to M-IA. Together they tried once more and were successfully able to get her on board. They continued to hoist on board the remainder of victims trapped on the wing for a total of 20 victims.
Capt. Johnson made contact with command to ascertain were the nearest shore line medical facility capable of providing adequate medical care for aprox. 20 victims were located. Ml "Alpha" was directed to bring them in to 43rd St. Circle Line work barge pier to turn them over to EMS. M-IA arrived at Circle Line pier and safely offloaded all 20 victims. Ml"Alpha" then proceeded boarding Rescue Co. divers, Rescue Batt. Chief Harten, Batt 9, Chief Joyce and returned to the plane for possible dive ops. Capt. Johnson maintained radio contact with Lt. Piambino aboard the Fireboat Mckean keeping him apprised of his operation and inquiring if Ml "Alpha could be of assistance with his.
Ml "Alpha" returned to the scene and conducted primary search of crash site area with negative results. Reports were now being verified that in fact all passengers and crew of plane had miraculously been safely removed and accounted for. Rescue Batt. made the determination that dive ops were not required at that time and along with Batt. 9 boarded M-I Fireboat McKean. The operations ofM-lA now turned to assisting Lt. Piambino and the Fireboat McKean to secure the plane and bring it back to the Manhattan shore line.
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