Marine Log - February 2009 - (Page 13) HEROINE ON THE HUDSON RESCUING THE SURVIVORS OF FLIGHT 1549 rittany Catanzaro is not your average 20-yearold. Last year, Catanzaro became the first female captain for New York Waterway. And just last month, Catanzaro was at the helm of the Gov. Thomas Captain Brittany Catanzaro Kean, the second ferry to come to the rescue of US Air’s Flight 1549 survivors. A native of Fairview, N.J, Catanzaro grew up with a love of boats and the sea. She enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve where she learned to fix engines and completed her basic training. Last March, she began working with NY Waterway as a deckhand and by August was named the ferry lines’ first female captain. On the afternoon of January 15, Catanzaro would once again make history. This time as a heroine. She was pulling out of Pier 79 , when she looked to her right and noticed Flight 1549 floating on the Hudson River. After notifying her fellow captains, Catanzaro told her crew to prepare for a man overboard. She says, “they [her crew] started gathering life vests and lowering our Jason’s Cradle, a device we use to start getting people out of the water as quickly as possible. I had to get my boat as close to the plane as possible so that my crew could start pulling people out.” When asked what was going through her mind throughout the ordeal, Catanzaro says, “I didn’t have time to think. We train constantly and I was just doing what we are trained to do. This is part of my job and, my crew and I, were prepared to take all necessary action.” The second to arrive on the scene, Catanzaro and her crew were able to save 24 from the ditched airline. A total of 14 NY Waterway ferries responded to the crash, saving 142 of the 155 passengers on board. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Coast Guard B US Air’sAirways Flight 1549 submerged in United Flight 1549 submerged in the Hudson Hudson of Battery Park the outside outside of Battery Park This isn’t the first time NY Waterway and its crews have come to the rescue. On 9/11 the ferry company evacuated 150,000 people out of lower Manhattan and just two years later on August 13, 2003 when most of the north east was in darkness (due to a black out) and traffic at a stand still NY Waterway was able to ferry 160,000 people back home to NJ. NY Waterway ferries 32,000 passengers between NY and NJ, Westchester and Rockland county, and Orange and Duchess county, a day. -Shirley Del Valle www.marinelog.com FEBRUARY 2009 MARINE LOG 13 http://www.marinelog.com
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