Memphis, TN - After a terrifying flight, Claudette Mason says she's glad to be on the ground and home in Memphis. Mason was on US Airways flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River Thursday. The flight only lasted six minutes. But those six minutes have changed Mason's life.
"It's surreal, like I'm watching myself go through this," Mason said. She says she locked arms with the man next to her and said a prayer before the plane went down in the Hudson.
Mason says she knew before the plane even took off, that something wasn't quite right.
"I noticed as we were taking off that we weren't getting as much altitude as a flight would normally get on take-off," Mason said. "I said to the gentlemen sitting next to me,'hmmm, we were on the runway a mighty long time.' I also said it didn't seem like we got enough altitude."
It was just after the plane got into the air, the 155 passengers on flight 1549 heard something.
"The next thing I knew we heard this loud boom on the side of the plane," Mason said.
Mason says that noise came from the right wing. She was three rows from the back on the right side.
"We got that dreaded phrase, prepare for impact."
She says she locked arms with the man next to her and said a prayer before the plane went down in the Hudson.
"I have had rougher land landings than I did in the water," Mason said. "While it was bad, it was smack, like the plan went like this to me."
Once she was out on the wing, she says she called her family to tell them what happened, and to tell them no matter what happened, she loved them.
"I was praising God. While I'm giving the captain his due justice, it was only by the grace of god that kept us alive."
