The SAU Buzz

Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Features

Media Credit: Submitted Three days after the emergency water landing, Chaplin worked with the crew to safety remove the jet from the Hudson.

Media Credit: Submitted Giant slings were attached to the plane that had settled more than 10 feet under water.

For him, it was just another day.
Get up at 5 a.m., get in a workout before being at work at 8, and spend the day training for the event that somewhere, someone would need to call in the Coast Guard.
Cole Chaplin had been all over the US in his time in the Coast Guard. From basic training in New Jersey, to Michigan, Virginia Beach, San Diego, Boston, and finally New York City. And on this ordinary day, Chaplin was even a little bit bored.
But January 15, 2009, was quickly becoming anything but ordinary for US Airways pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. Shortly after leaving the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Sully's jet flew into trouble. A flock of Canada Geese could not be avoided, and the bird strike took out both engines on the 747, just two minutes into the flight.
As Sully's emergency landing skills were put to the test, Chaplin and his fellow crew members were completely unaware of the turn their day would take - or the miracle they would be a part of.
The plane landed, miraculously intact, in the Hudson River. Five minutes later, Chaplin's crew received the call for help.
"We were just north of the Tappan Zee Bridge," Chaplin said. "That's when we got the call and then I was deployed with three other guys."
By the time the Coast Guard members arrived, the passengers of flight 1549 were standing on the wings. Captain Sully had completed his walk-through of the aircraft, and the rescue effort had begun.
"I was kind of in shell shock just to see it," Chaplin said. "It took me a minute to gather my thoughts."
Then it was time for action.
The water was icy and the danger was rising with every passing vessel. New York Police Department divers were already in the water helping the passengers into rescue boats, so Chaplin took on the task of helping to direct the chaos surrounding an unprecedented water rescue.
"We [had] to get everybody off the wings and to land because in that area of the river, there's so much traffic going by," Chaplin said. "One barge going by has a wake of probably four or five feet and could easily knock anybody off."
Coast Guard boats surrounded the area as Chaplin helped point ferries to each wing, then sending some to the New Jersey shoreline, some to the New York side. Rescue crews stood ready to treat any injuries as the passengers made it to shore. Six ferries and six Coast Guard boats worked furiously to help the passengers who were simply grateful to be alive.
"They were pretty calm because the panicking was over when they went down in the water," Chaplin said. "Everybody was very cooperative."
But getting the people to safety was only the beginning of Chaplin's work with the waterlogged jet. Two days later, he was called back to the scene as part of a safety crew to ensure the plane was removed from the Hudson safely. For 16 hours, crews worked to attach giant slings to the 747 that was now 10-15 feet beneath the frozen river. And every step of the way, the safety crew had to be consulted.
"For every different evolution, for every time there was a sling going onto one of the wings, they had to have a meeting," Chaplin said. "Each time a crane moved, there was a meeting...every time the divers went down, there was a meeting. For every movement there was a safety meeting."
There was, of course, no protocol for lifting a jet out of a river. And there were no instructions on how to battle the current. It was important to keep the plane straight, facing directly into the current. Imagine walking into the wind, Chaplin described, and trying to turn one direction or the other. It would be easiest to keep going straight into the wind, rather than fight it going left or right.
"It's the same thing with a current going over the front of the jet," Chaplin said. "If you got it to turn, it was going to ruin everything."
From late afternoon on January 17 to mid-morning the next day, the crew worked, finally hoisting the jet from the river and closing the rescue efforts for what became known as the "Miracle on the Hudson." For Chaplin, it's an experience he never imagined he would have, but one he's proud to have been a part of.
"I think it's cool to say that I was there and I have pictures for proof," he said. "Who can say it's the 'Miracle on the Hudson' and you were a part of that evolution? That's going to be known for years to come."
As he now takes on a new challenge of college at St. Ambrose, Chaplin knows his experience in the Coast Guard, and particularly his memories of that extraordinary day, will make for top-notch stories, and perhaps even a little bit of show-and-tell in the future.
"When I have kids, it'll [be like],'Yeah, I was on the 'Miracle on the Hudson.' Yeah, I was a part of that,'" he said. "I'll be able to say, 'Take these pictures to your class.'"

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