"US Airways Flight 1549 Crash Coverage"

"MIRACLE ON THE HUDSON"

Well I spent Saturday in Battery Park New York City to cover the recovery of flight 1549 which went down in the Hudson River. I arrived around 5:20am because I checked the weather report & I wanted to take advantage of the clear weather expected and the Sunrise that comes with it. If you've never been in NY City when the sun comes up it's an incredible experience to say the least. Everything is dark, quiet & peaceful and as the sun rises the city comes alive with magnificent color, light & energy. The temperature was 2'F, the air was crisp and I was EXCITED to be there!

I spent my time in the darkness to ready my body & equipment for the cold and the story I was covering. At these temperatures batteries take the most beating so I had brought 6 camera batteries & 3 sets of (8) AA's for my MD10 battery pack, good thing I did because I used MOST of them before the day was over. I started walking around the site and taking in the scenery along with introducing myself to several of the police officers guarding the area. After identifying myself to the outer perimeter cops as a retired officer I was allowed to enter the area with a premium parking space only 50' from the plane! I'd like to thank ALL the NY City Police officers who I met yesterday; they were a fantastic group of professionals and treated me with a great deal of respect & allowed me to roam anywhere I wanted as long as the area was safe.

I started shooting some night scenes of the city & surrounding area along with Jersey City which is a stones throw across the river. I found a lot of cool buildings to shoot, art forms, boats etc. After about 90 minutes or so of walking around I had to make a trip back to the car to warm up and dump some of the heavy gear I was toting around. I was frozen to the bone and needed some warm coffee, something to eat and HEAT! I started tearing opening & activating some of my hand toe warmer pads, stuffing them in my gloves, socks, pockets well everywhere LOL. This routine took place about every 60 minutes or less for the 12 hours I was there. I went through an entire case of 24 hand warmers & 3 sets of toes warmers but they were a life saver and without them I would have never made it.

The NYPD officers allowed me entry into the press pool & both press boxs which had the best vantage point to photograph the event but unfortunately after 12.5 hours of waiting my body had enough & was giving out on me. My back was in terrible pain and there was still no idea of when they would pull the plane out since the time had been pushed back every hour from 10am to 11 to 12 and so on and at 5pm they didn't know if they would complete it at all Saturday because the plane had filled with ice flow that had gathered at the shore line and now weighed over 1,000,000 pounds !!! Yes 1 MILLION pounds of total weight those 2 huge cranes had to pull out of the river. In the end I watched it on the news at MIDNIGHT when they finally got it out and loaded it onto the barge. I would have never made it another 7 hours plus I ran out of hand/feet warmers and had no winter long johns on my legs.

I had a 'Fantastic' time, met, hung out & talked with a LOT of wonderful emergency workers, photographers from around the world & every agency you could think of like the NY POST, ASSOCIATED PRESS, USA TODAY, TIME MAGAZINE, News anchors from ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, MSNBC and got some really great shots to boot!. A HUGE Thanks You to all the Great Professional NYPD Officers for granting me ALL ACCESS to the crash site, Stay Safe Brothers !!

The Full Gallery of Images shot can be seen here http://billpador.smugmug.com/gallery/7127737_aMMBQ/1/457123150_8kCRE

Thanks & Enjoy!~Bill~