AUDIO: Flight 1549 describes bird strike

Click here to listen to the recording from U.S. Airways Flight 1549 regarding the bird strike that brought the plane down.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Just before he ditched into New York’s Hudson River last month, the pilot of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 calmly radioed to air traffic controllers, “We’re going to be in the Hudson.”

The audio recordings, released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration, reflect the initial tension between tower controllers and the cockpit and then confusion about whether the Charlotte, N.C.-bound passenger jet went into the river.

“Emergency inbound,” one tower controller says as he tries to arrange for the stricken plane to land at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

“Can I get him in for Runway One?” the controller at New York TRACON, the Terminal Radar Approach Control Center in Westbury, N.Y, asks the tower at Teterboro.

“Runway One, that’s good,” says the tower controller at Teterboro.

“Cactus 1529 turn right two-eight-zero” for Teterboro, the TRACON controller orders the plane’s pilot. Cactus is the call sign used by controllers for US Airways.

“We can’t do it,” replies the plane’s pilot.

“Which runway would you like at Teterboro?” asks the tower at LaGuardia.

“We’re going to be in the Hudson,” the pilot replies.

“I’m sorry, say again Cactus” an air traffic controller responded after hearing the pilot’s message that he was ditching the Airbus A320.

There was no response from the aircraft.

After contact with the plane is lost, the tension in the tower at LaGuardia is clearly reflected in the voice of a controller. He sighs and then whispers to himself, “All right” as he returns to his normal duties.

“He lost all thrust” and “they’re gone, all frequencies,” the controller tells another plane that is preparing to take off.

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