One minute, Denise Lockie was chatting amiably with her seatmate in the first class cabin of U.S. Airways Flight 1549, as the plane headed out over the Hudson River on its departure from LaGuardia on a bitterly cold but clear Thursday afternoon.
The next, there was an explosion and the plane quickly tilted toward the water. Lockie, a Toledo native and Charlotte businesswoman, assumed the worst as flight attendants asked the 150 passengers aboard to tuck and brace. Before she tucked, Lockie turned to a passenger wearing a pilot's uniform who was sitting behind her.
"I asked if we were crashing. And [he] nodded yes."
Lockie,a frequent flier who has always been squeamish during takeoffs, felt hopeless.
"I was praying; I thought I was dead," she said. "And, then, we hit the water."
The explosion Lockie heard turned out to be a flock of birds that were swallowed by the plane's two engines, disabling them. The heroic actions of the pilot, Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III of Danville, Calif., and miraculous rescue efforts by the city of New York resulted in no casualties among the passengers and five crew members. Lockie, an executive at Staples on a two-day business trip to New York, spent Thursday night at Jersey City Medical Center, where she and a number of other passengers were taken for treatment and observation. She had a swollen left ankle and remained shaken, but was comforted by a happenstance visit of a cousin, David Najarian, of South Toledo.
As best she could, Lockie recalled the moments after the plane crashed.
"It was mass panic," she said.
The flight attendants quickly got the door open – the front part of the aircraft was already flooding - and the passengers in Lockie’s area were able to slide down the escape chute. Lockie said most of the passengers she saw - including herself - were not wearing life vests: "There wasn't enough time."
As she waited in the chute with about 15 other passengers, she observed Coast Guard boats and ferries trying to get close to the aircraft. At that point, she was submerged up to her waist in numbing, 36-degree water.
Somehow, she was able to retrieve her cell phone and call her sister, Nancy Kallile, who at that moment - around 3:40 p.m. - was in the West Toledo home she shares with their 94-year-old father, Sam Kallile.
Lockie told her sister: "Nancy, I've been in a plane crash. I'm in the Hudson River. I'm alive."
Nancy Kallile, in a phone interview Thursday night, said the call was surreal. "I totally freaked out. But I stayed with her and told her to try and stay calm and stay quiet."
Lockie's cell phone died, leaving her sister clueless about her fate. She looked around and saw passengers in the water, perched on the plane's wings and in other chutes. Finally, a ferry inched its way up to the chute and one-by-one Lockie and her fellow passengers climbed up a shaky wooden ladder to safety. Someone shouted out that the women should go first, but a few of the men, clearly shaken, scooted ahead, Lockie said. On board, she quickly borrowed a cell phone and called her sister.
"I'm alive. I love you. I can't believe I'm alive. I love you," she told Nancy, who said, "I was alive again [when I heard that.]"
As she rested Thursday night, wearing a pair of pants and a sweatshirt given to her by a firefighter, Lockie realized she had only had a glass of cranberry juice since lunch. But she wasn't hungry. Rather, she replayed the accident in her head and marveled at the heroics of her rescuers.
"It was phenomenal. They were kind, kind, kind people," she said.
And she was thankful for her good fortune: "I lost everything but, hey, they can be replaced. I'm good."
Lockie, a confident personality with a sharp wit, quickly captivated hospital personnel, the media and other visitors. The Today Show booked her for 7 a.m. Friday morning. She agreed to the interview only if she has access to a make-up kit - hers, presumably, is at the bottom of the Hudson - and if they don't ask her age. New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine stopped to say hello. Within minutes, Lockie had him in stiches, according to Najarian.
"She's the darling of the story," he said. "She's strong and funny."
Friday afternoon might be different. If she's up to it, Lockie will take a seat on a flight to Charlotte.
"It will be a challenge," she conceded. "But I have to get home."
Reported by George J. Tanber georgejtanber@gmail.com
