Back Stories: 'A Plane Landed In The Hudson'

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- As WCBS Newsradio 880 celebrates 50 years of covering news in New York, we bring you a new daily series, called WCBS Back Stories, sharing new stories about the people, places and events that marked the past five decades.

Find more 50th anniversary Back Stories and other special features here, and be sure to follow the station on Facebook and Twitter. 

It began with calls to the newsroom: "A plane landed in the Hudson," and within moments the pictures began to show up on the TVs in the studio. A commercial airliner had in fact landed in the Hudson River. Reporter Rich Lamb, who was in the newsroom conducting interviews about the inauguration of Barack Obama, was rushed into the studio to talk about the image on the screen before him. In this backstory - WCBS Anchor Steve Scott remembers the first moments of what was soon to be known as "The Miracle on the Hudson."

Related: From The Vault: 'Miracle On The Hudson' In 2009 

One of the most important jobs of a reporter is to find someone to talk to about the story. Sometimes those people are family and friends. This was the case while covering the story of the Miracle on the Hudson when WCBS News and Programming Director Tim Scheld learned a close friend was on board Flight 1549. 

By chance, reporter Peter Haskell was covering a story on blocks away from where Flight 1549 landed in the Hudson. After his producer learned of the planes location from police scanners, Peter was on his way and at the scene within minutes. But that scene began moving as the river's current took the plane south, so Peter soon gave chase.

Find more 50th anniversary Back Stories and other special features here, and be sure to follow the station on Facebook and Twitter.