Higgins, and the book

NEW YORK – Diane Higgins and her elderly mother, both of Goshen, recount their harrowing experiences while they were passengers on Flight 1549 last January as it landed in the Hudson River off Manhattan. A bird strike forced the pilots to make a heroic soft landing on the river with the rescue of all 150 passengers and the crew of the US Airways flight.

Authors Dorothy Firman and Kevin Quirk asked all of the passengers to document their experience and feelings in individual chapters and compiled them in a brand new book titled Brace for Impact.

After impact, Mrs. Higgins’ mother, Lucille Palmer, 85, turned to her daughter and said, “You go. I’ll stay here. I’ve lived my life.”

But, the two women were both plucked off a wing as the passengers climbed out of the aircraft and waited to be rescued by water taxis and ferries that were in the area and came rushing to the rescue.

There’s another story to the Miracle on the Hudson, as it has been dubbed.

Dr. Raymond Basri is a Middletown doctor who happened to be in Manhattan at the time of the crash. He rushed to the triage area and treated Mrs. Higgins and Palmer, both of whom live not far from him. This experience helped him heal from triage work during 9/11. He rushed to the call after the attacks at the World Trade Center and treated the injured. Basri is also a firefighter and an FAA medical examiner.

Although he was not on Flight 1549, the authors asked him to contribute to the book and write about his experience and feelings.

Twenty-two passengers provided first-person accounts of their survival, hope and rescue from the icy Hudson River on January 15, 2009.