Survivor recalls the events of the 2009 Miracle on the Hudson plane crash

TORONTO — On Jan. 15, 2009, Dave Sanderson’s life changed forever.

A survivor of the “Miracle on the Hudson” plane crash, Sanderson said the brush with death changed his life.

“When you think you’re going to die, everything becomes clearer,” he said.

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Sanderson was one of 155 on board US Airways Flight 1549 and recalls that a minute after the plane took off he heard an explosion.

No one knew in that moment that both engines were gone.

“When the bird struck the plane, no one knew that it struck both sides simultaneously,” he said.

“People only heard one boom, so everybody in the plane thought it happened on the other side. So no one was startled.”

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The pilot of the plane, Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger, made an emergency landing in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.

All 155 passengers survived.

Sanderson was the last passenger off the plane that day and remembered in that moment what his late mother had always told him.

“If you do the right thing God will take care of you,” he said. “And the right thing for me is to take care of other people first.”

Sanderson was credited with helping to save the lives of some of the last passengers on the plane while risking his own life in the process.

Today, Sanderson is taking his experience and the lessons he learned to help others.

He dedicates his time speaking at events and raising money for the American Red Cross and hopes to do the same for the Canadian Red Cross.