Lifting the Plane from the Hudson
I stopped by to see how they were doing getting the US Airways plane out of the river last night. I was already prepared for the cold because I was on my way back from skiing in Vermont, where the high was a balmy 11 degrees (F) (when we started in the morning it was 1 degree).
It was a typical NYC incident response, with 100's of trucks I've never seen before:
And a media circus:
I've done large sound systems for outdoor concerts both north and south of Rockefeller park, where the plane was tied up, so I know the area reasonably well, and with everything locked down, it was basically impossible to see the plane in the water. But it was impossible to miss the massive, massive crane:
And these guys were working in crazy conditions, check out the ice in the river, and listen to the wind:
[video link lost]
It was already after 10pm and I was too tired from skiing to wait around, but the excellent maritime blog Tugster has a great description of what was going on, had a much better vantage point and got some great photos:
I'm off now to hang upside down from my kayak in a nice warm pool in Queens.