story . i m anderson cooper. last week at tokyo s haneda airport, a jal airbus collided with a smaller aircraft. five crew members on the coast guard plane died. but amazingly, all 379 people on the airbus survived. they were safely evacuated before the plane was engulfed in flames. investigation into what happened is still under way. it got us thinking about that miraculous story of survival that happened 15 years ago this month. us airways flight 1549 took off from new york s laguardia airport heading to charlotte, north carolina. there were 150 passengers onboard and 5 crew members, including the pilot, captain chesley sully sullenberger. it should have been a quick two-hour flight. but soon after takeoff the plane collided with a flock of geese. both engines went out and the plane headed down. captain sullenberger acted quickly, heading towards the hudson river for an emergency landing. his decisiveness saved the lives of all 159 people onboard. but this potential trage
some of f the passenengers when met later,r, they werere i thou you were the flight t attendant. i thinink because e i was almom dresessed like a a flight atatt. i had on blue and d gray pantst. isn t ththis silly? i should get rid of this stuff. ababout a month later is when i was just not myself. oncece the shock, i ththink, w off,f, t then i becameme just r sad, reaeally blue.. susuddenly i d did not feeeel ed to keep p everythingng going. my abilityty to remembmber. i wowould be typyping an emamai totally lolose my traiain of ththought. i feltlt like eyeoeore. anand i d alwaways been titigge. i just sururvived, youou know. itit was probabably one ofof th greatest acts in aviation history and walked off of it withthout a scratch on me. what is wrong with you? like, snap out of it. you felt so ungrateful. there are some parts of me that i think are better. i got more involved with my church, with my community.
what t s trauma f for one pe is notot necessaririly a traumu event fofor another person. it s very individually defined. what traumatic events really are, are events that challenge corere beliefs. like how m much controrol do i over my y life? how predictable is my life? how fair is life? i d been flying airplanes for 42 years. i had 20,000 hours in the air. and all l during thahat time, i never beenen so challelenged in airplanene.. i knknew immediaiately that t ts going to b be differenent. thisis was goingng to be thehe day y of my lifefe. this i is a blowupup of a photot wawas taken duduring the r resc. i it was inteteresting acact prpreparing fofor you comiming . i pulled o out a lot o of the o memomorabilia anand letters s a newspaper r clippings.s. and d it was a l little bit t -