"The plane ended its six-minute flight at 3:31 pm with an unpowered ditching while heading south at about 130 knots (150 mph; 240 km/h) in the middle of the North River section of the Hudson River roughly abeam West 50th Street (near the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum) in Manhattan and Port Imperial in Weehawken, New Jersey. Sullenberger said in an interview on CBS television that his training prompted him to choose a ditching location near operating boats so as to maximize the chance of rescue. The location was near three boat terminals: two used by ferry operator NY Waterway on either side of the Hudson River and a third used by tour boat operator Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises.[12][43] The ditching location was approximately 40.769498°N 74.004636°W.[44] After coming to a stop in the river, the plane began drifting southward with the current.[45]
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Board Member Kitty Higgins, the principal spokesperson for the on-scene investigation, said at a press conference the day after the accident that it "has to go down [as] the most successful ditching in aviation history."[10] "These people knew what they were supposed to do and they did it and as a result, no lives were lost."[46]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Airways_Flight_1549#Ditching