AN airline pilot was hailed a hero after almost 150 passengers miraculously escaped with their lives when a jet was forced to ditch into a river in New York.

The US Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from LaGuardia Airport in the city en route to Charlotte, North Carolina, when the crash happened in the Hudson River near 48th Street around 8pm GMT.

It is thought the plane, an Airbus 320 with 148 passengers and five or six crew onboard, may have been hit by a flock of birds.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said there was no suggestion of terrorist involvement.

The plane was submerged in the icy waters up to the windows, but rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the aircraft.

Some, who had been standing on the plane's fuselage, were not even wet when they were rescued.

Several boats, including commuter ferries, surrounded the plane, which was slowly sinking.

New York City firefighters were also at the scene.

Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) spokeswoman Laura Brown said: "We believe (the aircraft)was airborne for three minutes after take-off when it crashed into the Hudson River."

Passengers were hurt in the incident, with emergency services saying they had suffered injuries akin to those sustained in a car crash.

One rescued passenger said: "I'm pretty sure everybody got off. Thank God everyone is pretty much OK."

Another said: "I was standing on the left wing for a little while.

"I hope none of us ever have to experience it again.

"I think everyone got out of the plane.

"I think everyone survived and thats miraculous."

An eyewitness said: "It made a pretty big splash when it landed on the water."

One passenger said there was an explosion a few minutes after the plane took off.

Passenger Jeff Kolodjay described the moment the plane went down.

He said: "We were flying out from LaGuardia to Charlotte and about three or four minutes into the flight, I was sitting in 23A, and the left engine just blew.

"Fire and flames coming out of it and I was looking right at it because I was sitting right there.

"And it just started smelling a lot like gasoline.

"A couple of minutes after that the pilot said we better brace for a hard impact and that's when everyone to be honest started saying prayers.

"We looked out over the water and thought we had a chance because there's water, but you've got to give it to the pilot he made a hell of a landing."

Asked to describe the landing he replied "scary as s***."

"We hit hard. People were bleeding all over the place where I got out," he said.

"Some lady's leg got cut off, but he did a good job.

"I hit my head. Everyone's head hit. We hit the water pretty hard, but I'm fine."

He said the first reaction of passengers was chaos, but it quickly became more orderly.

He added: "I just kept saying relax, relax and then it just started filling with water quick."

Asked if it was an orderly evacuation, Mr Kolodjay said: "I would say that for a plane that is dumped in the Hudson River, about as orderly as can be.

"I'm happy to be alive - I'm perfect."

Another witness said she saw the plane landing slowly as if it was landing on the tarmac at an airport.

"It came down and landed very smoothly - I didnt see any fire and it wasnt wobbly or anything," she said.

Someone else said: "I thought it might be a terrorist attack or something. As it got closer to the water, I saw the pilot make a last-ditch effort to try to gain altitude.

"He was successful for about two seconds and then the plane came down and flopped into the water. Had he not done that it would not have been a soft landing."

Witness Bill White praised the boats which took part in the rescue effort.

He said: "Thank God for commerce in the Hudson River.

He added: "To watch them get rescued was just a glorious sight.

"It is very, very cold here in New York. It must be so much colder in the water."

Another witness, Kevin Johns, said: "I saw this aircraft very low. There were flames coming out of the engine and I heard it spluttering.

"I knew the plane was in trouble so I called 911 right away. It must have been a minute after that the plane went into the river."

Andreas Sappock, of Circleline Sightseeing, who assisted with the rescue effort, said: "We took one of our boats, and we saw the plane in the water. So we took the boat out to the crash site to assist in the rescue of the passengers and the plane.

"When we got there, there were still quite a lot of people floating on the water. The water was calm, but it is very cold."

The Mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, said the pilot had done "a masterful job".

Speaking in New York just hours after the crash, Mr Bloomberg heaped praise upon the pilot, who was the last person to leave the plane before it sank.

The Mayor said: "It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and making sure that everyone got out.

"I had a long conversation with the pilot, who walked the plane twice after everyone got off to make sure there was no-one left on board. This pilot did a wonderful job."

David Learmount, operations and safety editor of Flight International magazine and an expert on aviation issues said the plane's pilot had performed a textbook ditching: "This pilot has done a first class job," he said. "He obviously knew what was necessary to ditch with success on water and he achieved it. It is very easy to try and be clever. This guy knew exactly what to do and he did it."

Fellow aviation expert James Ferguson said he had never seen anything like it.

"If you hit water fairly hard, as you will do with an aircraft, it tends to break up. But this aircraft seems to be virtually undamaged," he said.

Confirming the incident, a US Airways spokesman said: "US Airways has confirmed that flight 1549 has been involved in an accident. Flight 1549 was en route to Charlotte from LaGuardia.

"The flight was operated with a crew of two pilots and three flight attendants. US Airways' primary concern at this time is for those on board the airplane and their families.

"Flight 1549 was originally scheduled for departure at 2.45 p.m. Eastern Time. The flight's actual time of departure was 3.03 p.m. Eastern Time.

"Airline officials are in direct contact with local, state and national authorities and are co-operating fully with emergency response efforts. US Airways has activated the US Airways Care team of specially trained employee volunteers to assist families and passengers."