Authorities said there were no fatalities and that all aboard got off safely.

Flight 1549, an Airbus A320, appeared to make a controlled landing in the water shortly after takeoff from New York bound for Charlotte, N.C.

Television news footage showed the aircraft resting apparently intact in the water as ferries and rescue vessels surrounded it and helicopters flew overhead.

Inflatable boats were deployed to carry passengers from the plane to the nearby vessels.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, Laura Brown, said, "My understanding is that everyone is alive. I don’t know if there are any serious injuries or not."

Brown said the plane appeared to have hit one or more birds on takeoff. Initial accounts indicated the airliner lost both engines.

"We understand there were eyewitness reports that the plane might have flown into a flock of birds," Brown said.

But Ellen Howe, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration, confirmed only that there was "no known nexus to terrorism" in the downing.

A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, Laura Keehner said, "There is no information at this time to indicate that this is a security-related incident. We continue to closely monitor the situation, which at present is focused on search and rescue."

Alberto Panero, a passenger on the plane, told CNN in a telephone interview that everyone on the plane was "pretty much okay" after the impact.

"This was a near-death experience that thankfully did not turn out that way," he said.

Panero said, "Thank the Lord, and thank the pilot. I can’t believe that somehow he managed to land that plane safely."

He said the pilot told the passengers, "Prepare for impact," just before the splash landing. For a moment afterward there was pandemonium, he said. Then, "a couple of people took charge" and calmed people down as they made their way to the exits.

"The plane started filling with water really quick" after it hit the water, another passenger, Jeff Kolodjay, told reporters after being rescued. He said a couple of women sustained "bad leg injuries."

Kolodjay said he waded through frigid waist-deep water as he got off the plane. "It was pretty scary, man," he said.

Passengers stood on the wings before they were picked up by rescue boats.

A witness, Ben Vonklemperer, told CNN he saw the plane "making what appeared to be a very gradual landing" in the Hudson. "It appeared not to have any landing gear engaged," he said. "It basically just hit the water."

The incident occurred on a cold winter’s day, with the air temperature at about 21 degrees and the water temperature just above freezing. In those temperatures, passengers would have faced hypothermia in minutes if they gone into the water.

As the passengers were taken off the plane, it appeared to be gradually sinking in the river near 48th Street in midtown Manhattan. The tail section was partly submerged.

Officials said the plane took off from LaGuardia at 3:26 p.m. Eastern time with 148 passengers on board and five or six crew members. It crash landed into the Hudson less than three minutes later.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was dispatching a team of investigators from Reagan National Airport this evening.

Brown, the FAA spokeswoman, said air traffic at LaGuardia was operating normally within about an hour after the incident. Immediately after the plane went down, authorities ordered a "ground stop" at the airport, halting plane traffic into it and delaying departures.

US Airways issued a statement saying airline officials were in direct contact with local, state and national authorities and were cooperating fully with emergency response efforts.

Doug Parker, the chairman and chief executive of US Airways, said the plane had 150 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board when it went down.

"Everyone is off the plane and accounted for," he told reporters shortly after 5 p.m., citing a preliminary report.

He said it was "premature to speculate about the cause of the accident" and that the National Transportation Safety Board "will conduct a thorough investigation . . . with our complete support." He said US Airways is "committed to determining the cause of this event" to prevent it from happening again.

"Right now we’re working to care for those who have been touched by this accident," he said. People in the United States can call 1-800-679 8215 for information on family members who were on the plane, Parker said.

Staff writer Spencer S. Hsu contributed to this article.

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/15/AR2009011502571.html?hpid=artslot