This afternoon was completely surreal. Adam and I went to Chelsea Market for coffees plus a change of scenery to come up with some ideas for new projects. As we were leaving, the TV in the entranceway showed a plane floating in water along with a message that everyone had gotten out alive. I thought to myself, that's great, what are the odds?
As we walked outside, the traffic was nuts and there was a traffic cop at the corner of 15th and 9th, not letting anyone turn to the West Side Highway. I noticed this and couldn't help but think that the traffic must have been hell in order for them to have someone standing on the corner.
When I got back into the office there was a voicemail for me with some urgent issue that had to be resolved by 5pm or the world would end. Paul came over so we could work on it and mentioned that his wife had told him that a plane had crashed into the Hudson. We looked around and noticed that half the office was standing looking out the window. We ran over and you could see a flotilla of ferries and emergency boats being pulled downstream while a helicopter flew overhead.
In fact, we pretty much saw this:
...except from the opposite perspective. I work in the giant red brick building in the background. What made it extra surreal was that it lasted about five minutes, and then the current had pushed the flotilla/wreckage out of our field of view.
On a different note, this crash will almost certainly be talked about for the quality of 'citizen journalism'. One of the first pictures came from Twitter and Flickr has photos that outdo any television. Check out this one and this one.
Update (01/19/2008): The videos are up and the first rescue boat arrived around three and a half minutes after touchdown.