US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport in NewYork City on Jan. 15, 2009, headed to Charlotte, N.C. Threeminutes into the flight, the plane struck a flock of Canada geesewhich resulted in an immediate and complete loss of bothengines. At a mere 3,000 feet, the crew of the aircraftquickly determined they would be unable to reach any airfield sothey turned to glide over the Hudson. What happened in thenext four minutes determined the fate of the 155 individuals onboard.

Immediately after losing both engines, Capt. Sully Sullenbergerbegan considering his options: turn back to LaGuardia, find anearby airport, or crash land somewhere over Manhattan. Whilehe was speaking with air traffic control, his co-pilot pulled outtheir flight manual (aka their extensive Disaster Recovery Planwhich was hundreds of pages), found the 10-page procedure to followwhen both engines fail and began frantically working his way downthe checklist to re-start the engines.

After a quick assessment Captain Sullenberger determined that anairport landing was going to be impossible under thecircumstances. The nervous air traffic controller keptrelaying options at all available airports within a 10-mile radius,but nothing was close enough. While trying to suppress hisadrenaline, emotions and fear, Captain Sullenberger fell back tohis countless hours as a glider pilot in order to stay in controlof the plane. Two minutes after the collision and two minutesfrom impact, Sullenberger spotted his destination and calmly toldthe air traffic controller “we're going to be in the Hudson.”

The co-pilot continued his relentless efforts to restart theengines without success. As the plane hovered just a couplehundred feet above the Hudson, the captain instructed the crew andpassengers to prepare for an emergency landing by declaring “bracefor impact!” – the first words uttered to the passengers and crewsince takeoff.

Seconds later the plane skipped across the Hudson and cheersrang out when the plane safely came to a stop after impacting thewater at over 150 mph. However, the moments of relief werequickly drowned out by water pouring in the back of the aircraft asthe plane began to sink. In less than 25 minutes, the planewould be at the bottom of the Hudson which was a chilly 38degrees.

As you know, all 155 people escaped death that day by findingsafety in nearby ferry boats that came to their aid within minutes;however you may not know why this plane, which was designed to stayafloat, sank so quickly. Turns out there is a “ditching”button above the co-pilot's chair which seals the aircraft andprevents it from sinking. So why didn't the crew press thisall important button?

Perhaps it was their inexperience with this situation, the lackof time, or the overwhelming emotions … but I believe it was simplythat their plan wasn't designed for that specific situation.

You see their 10-page procedure for restarting the engines waswritten to be followed when an aircraft was at 30,000 feet and hadalmost half an hour of flying time before impact. Their planewas at 3,000 feet and had four minutes before crashing so theysimply didn't' have time to read the last paragraph on the lastpage which tells them to press a small, little button that would'vekept the plane from sinking.

In spite of the failed plan, this incredible event could not bedescribed as anything but a success. In fact, the entire crewof Flight 1549 was awarded the Master's Medal of the Guild of AirPilots and Air Navigators, and many have described their experienceas “the most successful ditching in aviation history.”

However, the reason I believe this is such a herald story isbecause of the countless hours of experience that CaptainSullenberger had in flying planes without engines. When theywere in a grave situation, he was in a familiar place, and simplyacted as he was trained.

As a senior continuity planner, I have found that a lot oforganizations and individuals put a heavy emphasis on theplan. My recommendation is that your focus not be so muchabout the plan, but instead about the recovery andhow you can prepare for one.

Because of the nature of an emergency which is a sudden,urgent, usually unexpected occurrence requiring immediateaction, it is highly unlikely that the event will unfold theway you or I are planning for it to.

I think the Army said it best when describing how to immediatelyrespond to an emergency: “Plans are worthless, but planning iseverything.” To get started with your planning simply starttalking. Schedule a meeting with team members that could playa hands-on role with recovery and begin to understand the differentassumptions people have made about what to do and find commonground. Focus on the various ways you could handle anemergency beginning with your communications. Make sure youhave a few ways to communicate among yourselves, to your employees,and to key vendors and clients.

Know that when disasters strike, time is running out, and theactions you take in those critical moments will define the futureof your organization. The biggest observation I have seenover my company's 23 years and 1,000 rescues is that the mostsuccessful actions taken during a disaster aren't found on a page,but instead in someone's trained ability to respond.

By the way, if you and I were on Flight 1549 and started readingthis story immediately after losing both engines, the captain wouldbe coming on over the intercom right now instructing us to “bracefor impact!” Are you ready?

MarkNorton is senior continuity planner at Agility Recovery inCharlotte, N.C.