On Jan. 15, 2009, on a chilly Manhattan day, the city covered in a light dusting of snow and with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees, the world watched a miracle unfold in real time, minute by harrowing minute.
US Airways Flight 1549 en route to Charlotte, N.C., with both engines disabled, careened low past the Manhattan skyline, seemingly destined for a tragic fatal ending from what many feared was another terrorist attack. This time, however, the culprits were birds, which had struck the plane.