The story

Minutes after he reported hitting birds and losing power in both engines, the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 calmly told an air traffic controller the plane would ditch into the Hudson River.

"We can't do it," pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger said at 3:29 p.m. on January 15, in response to efforts to land the plane at New Jersey's Teterboro airport, according to a recording released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration.

"We're gonna be in the Hudson," Sullenberger said, about three and a half minutes after the Airbus A320 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport.

"I'm sorry, say again," said the controller, from New York Tracon, a radar facility on Long Island that handles flights after they depart from LaGuardia or Teterboro airports.. Listen to the pilot talk to the controllers

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All About Chesley SullenbergerAccidents and DisastersHudson River

All About Accidents and DisastersHudson River

Hero pilot on 'Larry King'
Watch the heroic US Airways pilot and crew in their first live primetime interview.
Tuesday, 9 p.m. ET on CNN

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