AFA-CWA Flight Attendants Among Heroes of US Airways's 'Miracle on the Hudson'

The flight crew heroes of US Airways Flight 1549 include three AFA-CWA flight attendants who helped get the plane's 150 passengers to safety in less than two minutes after the emergency landing in the icy cold Hudson River in New York City last week.

"While the investigation of Flight 1549 will take months to complete we do know this much - the skill and professionalism of the entire crew made all the difference," said Mike Flores, AFA-CWA US Airways president.

The three flight attendants are based in Charlotte, N.C. Along with the pilot and co-pilot, they were invited by President Barack Obama to his inauguration Tuesday.

AFA-CWA is participating in the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation.  "As the representative of more than 55,000 aviation safety and security professionals, AFA-CWA has played an important role in NTSB investigations for decades," said AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend. "We once again applaud the professionalism of our US Airways colleagues who demonstrated to the world the essential role flight attendants serve on the aircraft."

She and Flores said they hope the incident will again remind people of the most important role of flight attendants – passenger safety.

"Once the aircraft came to rest in the water, the years of experience and training of the flight attendants took over," Flores said. "All 150 passengers were safely evacuated and the crew was the last to exit the aircraft. That did not happen because of luck. The only way this happened was because flight attendants are first and foremost safety professionals, trained for such an event."