Aberdeen Shrimper
The Man who sold the world
The Airbus 320 – Flight 1549 from New York's La Guardia airport to Charlotte, North Carolina – had 151 people on board, made up of 146 passengers and five crew members.
It is not known how many people are injured as a result of the crash, but New York Police boats and local ferries are in the vicinity of the plane, and people have been sighted on the wings of the plane as some form of rescue begins to take shape.
All passengers have been accounted for and are safe.
The plane, which is floating upright, is understood to have gone down around 3.20pm local time, hitting the river around the west of 50th Street, in the stretch of the Hudson that sits between Manhattan and New Jersey.
A representative from the Intrepid Museum – a museum based on the former US navy destroyer the USS Intrepid – said that the water at the point where the plane landed is a minimum of 50 feet deep in the area in which the plane crashed, and that the tide is going out. The water temperature is reported to be 42 degrees Fahrenheit, while the air temperature is closer to 20 degrees.
A preliminary report by the Federal Aviation Authority said that it appeared the plane had been hit some form of obstruction, possibly a flock of birds. It is understood that the pilot was trying to return to La Guardia as it landed on the river.
An eyewitness, local resident Natasha, told local news channel New York One, that she saw the plane landing slowly as if it was landing on the tarmac at an airport. "It came down and landed very smoothly – didn't see any fire and it wasn't wobbly or anything."
A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigations said the crash is not terror-related.
