Thursday, January 15, 2009

Miracle in the Hudson


Reports arrive that about 155 passengers and crew included survived the landing of flight 1549 in the Hudson River. The passengers, the authorities and all those involved in the rescue refer to it as a miracle. And it is indeed a miracle. A miracle for several reasons: first, because when they struck the group of geese, the pilot realized that the engines were dead and asked the passengers to brace for a crash, but according to some passengers, they began to PRAY, I guess there are no atheists in foxholes. Second, the pilot in a miraculous way was able to place the plane on the river without breaking the plane, or submerging the plane, in fact he was able to put it almost perfectly close to land preserving the integrity of the aircraft. Third, people were able to leave the plane in a relative orderly manner, and even those who had to stand on the wings that were submerged, were able to do so without suffering from hypothermia since the freezing waters only covered their ankles. Fourth, due to the intense commercial traffic in the river, it was a perfect spot to place the plane since immediately many of the vessels navigating the Hudson river came to the rescue and were able to remove all the passengers to safety in a prompt manner. Miracle? You bet. And remember the basic definition of miracle as given in wikipedia: A miracle is a visible interruption of the laws of nature, such that can only be explained by DIVINE INTERVENTION! Yeap, Divine intervention, thus, the credit goes primarily to God and also to the pilot that allowed himself to be guided by the HOLY ONE in this amazing adventure. What is amazing is that even the newscasters cannot avoid being reminded that there is indeed a God who is over all and in all :-)

1 comment:

  1. The detail I most appreciated about the story was that after everyone else was out of the plane, the pilot stayed to walk up and down the aisle twice, looking for anyone left behind, while the water was flowing in.

    ReplyDelete