"If the plane's nose was a little higher or lower, it could have been a disaster," he added, noting that if either wing tipped to one side and hit the water, the plane would have done cartwheels down the river.
But just three minutes after takeoff from La Guardia, with little time to consult checklists dictating how to prepare the aircraft for a water landing, and with warnings probably sounding in the cockpit, Sullenberger managed a perfect shot into the water.
"He just used the seat of his pants on this," Schiff said. "I would love to shake his hand someday."
Water landings are rare. Airline pilots said that they didn't recall specific training about what to do in an incident where they were forced to land on water in an aircraft without power from its engines, also known as a "dead stick" landing.
"I don't recall any specific training toward this particular situation -- in other words, this situation where almost immediately after takeoff you get a foreign object ingestion and it takes your power out immediately," said Mack Moore, a 747-400 pilot who retired from United Airlines five years ago and is a consultant to the Air Line Pilots Assn., which represents 53,000 pilots in the U.S. and Canada.
Although the specifics vary by airline, pilots receive several hours of training each year regarding water landings and evacuation procedures in which they review accidents that occurred on water, said Jon Russell, a commercial pilot and regional safety officer for the Air Line Pilots Assn.
Most training for what's known as "ditching" an aircraft in water assumes that a pilot has a good amount of altitude between the aircraft and the water so they have time to prepare for touching it down.
They follow checklists, including one probably stored electronically in the Airbus A320's cockpit.
Depending on the airline, pilots also do simulator training every six months to a year in which they may practice water landings, said Capt. Rory Kay, a commercial pilot who serves as air safety chairman for the Air Lines Pilot Assn.
"You just have to hope the techniques you're practicing in the simulators end up being what happens when you end going in the water," Kay said.
One longtime commercial pilot who has spent years as a company flight instructor warned that before dubbing Sullenberger a hero, investigators needed to determine whether crew error contributed to the emergency.
The pilot, who did not want to be named, was skeptical that bird strikes shut down both engines.
"I've seen it happen too many times in the simulators -- you get a flameout in one engine and the quick response is to shut down the wrong one," the pilot said.
But Kay said he found it hard to imagine a scenario in which Sullenberger erroneously shut down a working engine if the other had been hit.
"It looks like hats off all around to the cockpit crew," Kay said.
"Ultimately, it was their response and fine, fine airmanship that enabled this to have such a happy ending."
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matea.gold@latimes.com
jennifer.oldham@latimes.com
peter.pae@latimes.com
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Times staff writers Geraldine Baum, Joanna Lin and Maura Dolan and researcher Robin Mayper contributed to this report.
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Aviation safety
Bird-airplane collisions are frequent, though rarely dire. NATION, A19
