Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Miracle on the Hudson — the emergency landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York's Hudson River after a gaggle of geese flew into the jet's engines, or vice versa, shutting the flight down.
All 150 passengers and five members of the crew survived, almost without a scratch.
Native Utahn Darren Beck was among them.
Darren, 38, a graduate of Midvale's Hillcrest High School and BYU's MBA program, lives and works in Charlotte, N.C., the intended destination when Flight 1549 lifted off from New York's LaGuardia Airport at 3:25 p.m. on Jan. 15, 2009.
The flight lasted six minutes. Six minutes that turned the pilot who landed the plane, Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, into a national celebrity — and six minutes that significantly altered Darren's life.
"People say it wasn't a miracle," the married father of three says. "I heard there's a book that says any pilot could have done the exact same thing because the technology of those airplanes is so great. For one who lived through it, I just laugh at that. The airplane isn't what decided where to go, to land in the river and not go back to the airport. The airplane didn't determine that the weather was clear and sunny, that the commuter ferries just happened to be on their way out, saw the plane and turned directly to us. There were just a lot of little things that all added up to one big miracle. Plane crashes don't end that way, where everyone gets off alive. It truly was a miracle.
"People say to me, 'So this airplane crash is the best thing that's ever happened to you?' I say, 'Yeah, it's right up there.' "
The passengers have stayed in close contact, he says; 150 total strangers who are "like a family now."
They are constant reminders to one another how fortunate they are.
For Darren, the miracles started before he boarded.
"I miraculously got upgraded to first class," he says.
He only got to enjoy that upgrade for about three minutes, until Capt. Sullenberger came on the intercom and said, "This is your captain, brace for impact."
Then the flight attendants chanted "Heads down, stay down, brace, brace," until the plane hit the river.
During the moments between "heads down, stay down, brace, brace" and impact, Darren planned for all sorts of scenarios, not sure if the plane would flip, immediately flood or break up when it hit the water. As it turned out, it did none of those things, allowing him to grab a life vest and slide down an emergency slide out an exit door just three seats away.
"People in the back had water flooding in, but all I got was my feet wet," he says. "I was in a very fortunate situation, even in a situation that turned out very fortunate."
The cell phone on his belt was still dry, so as soon as he was safe he called his wife, Tara, in Charlotte.
"I could already see helicopters above us," he says. "I didn't want her to see it on the news. She was on her way to pick up the kids. I said, 'Honey, my plane just crashed but I'm fine.' I didn't tell her I was in a life raft, sitting next to the plane sitting in the Hudson River."
The experience didn't make him a perfect person, or necessarily a better one, says Darren. But it did make him more aware of what's important.
"I wasn't a workaholic before, and I don't think I was a horrible father or anything," he says, "but still there were times when it was my son's, oh, third grade graduation and I had this important meeting and I'd go, 'It's only third grade.'
"But now when there are trade-offs, I'll err on the side of my family."
As a case in point, today in New York they're holding an anniversary party for everyone who was aboard Flight 1549.
But Darren won't be there. He'll be at the elementary school in Charlotte where his 11-year-old son, Tyler, has the lead in the school play, "Macbeth." The one and only scheduled performance is this afternoon.
"Before the crash, I'd have been, 'Maybe you can tape it for me,' " he says. "After the crash, not a chance. I'll be there front and center."
He's sure his other family will understand.
Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com