The frozen Hudson River may have saved two lives Monday night. A Cessna 172 on a routine night-training flight reported engine trouble and made an emergency landing on the ice-covered Hudson River near Newburgh, N.Y. State police said the ice likely helped flight instructor Liam Darcy, 31, and his 17-year-old student reach safety after the plane came down close to the western shoreline.
The plane took off from Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma just before 7 p.m., according to FlightAware data cited by CBS New York, during a scheduled night-training session. The student pilot was at the controls for much of the flight as the Cessna headed north, eventually touching down at Stewart International Airport in New Windsor for a stop-and-go — a standard training exercise in which an aircraft lands, comes to a full stop, then takes off again without leaving the runway.
On the return leg to Long Island, the plane began losing oil pressure near West Point. Mr. Darcy took over the controls and contacted air traffic controllers at Stewart, declaring an emergency.
“I think we’re losing our engine,” he told controllers, according to tower audio obtained by CBS New York. “I think I might have to put it in the water.”
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Moments later, it was no longer a question.
“We’re going into the Hudson River,” Mr. Darcy said. “I don’t think we’re gonna make the airport.”
With the runway out of reach, Mr. Darcy guided the aircraft north toward the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, executed a 180-degree turn and set the Cessna down on an ice-covered stretch of the Hudson about 200 feet from the western shoreline, officials said. Stewart air traffic controllers played a critical role in the final moments, helping guide the aircraft as close to the riverbank as possible.
Emergency responders were dispatched to the crash site shortly after 8 p.m. but initially could not locate the aircraft, the Middle Hope Fire Department reported. The plane was spotted a few minutes later in waters off Newburgh, about 62 miles north of Manhattan.
By then, Mr. Darcy and his student had already gotten themselves out.
The two self-extricated from the aircraft and made their way about 150 feet across the ice before swimming approximately 50 feet through the frigid water to shore, officials said. Once on land, they took shelter in a nearby building, where, Mr. Darcy told CBS News, they found overalls, changed into dry clothes and waited for help. Both were transported to St. Luke’s Hospital and treated for hypothermia before being released.
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New York State Police Capt. Brad Natalizio said Tuesday the outcome was almost incomprehensible given the conditions on the river.
“In our experience working many cases on the Hudson River, it’s not only the extreme cold temperatures — but the current as well,” Capt. Natalizio told PIX11. “The fact they made it to the shoreline is nothing short of a miracle, in my opinion.”
State police said the ice covering the river’s surface was likely a decisive factor in the pair’s survival, with Capt. Natalizio noting that the freezing temperatures and powerful current make the Hudson particularly unforgiving, and that the outcome would likely have been far worse in open water.
A pilot flying in the area when the emergency unfolded diverted course after hearing the mayday call, spotted the downed Cessna and began circling to help guide first responders to the scene.
“We saw they were going down in the river and we weren’t sure anyone had been there when it happened,” the pilot told News 12. “So we diverted our course and found them pretty quickly. Thank God they landed upright.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul praised the outcome and the emergency response, invoking a now-famous chapter in the river’s history.
“Thank God both the pilot and passenger of a single-engine plane that performed an ice landing near Newburgh have been located with only minor injuries,” Mrs. Hochul wrote on X. “Grateful to our first responders for their quick actions.”
The governor called it “another miracle on the Hudson,” a deliberate echo of the January 2009 emergency in which US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed a crippled Airbus A320 on the Hudson after a bird strike knocked out both engines shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, saving all 155 people on board. That landing, immortalized in the 2016 Clint Eastwood film “Sully” starring Tom Hanks, was originally dubbed a miracle by then-Gov. David Paterson.
The Cessna 172 remained in the water as of Tuesday morning, with state police coordinating its removal. The cause of the reported engine trouble remains under investigation by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board. Preliminary findings indicate no signs of intoxication or impairment, and investigators said the incident appears accidental.
Mr. Darcy, reached at his home in Suffolk County on Tuesday, told CBS News he feels good and added that he never doubted that he and his student would survive.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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