How Chesley Sullenberger And ‘Miracle On The Hudson’ Helped Twitter Take Off
Chesley Sullenberger — affectionately known as Sully — made headlines with his “miracle on the Hudson” five years ago, but he is also responsible for turning Twitter into what it is today.
It is hard to believe five years have passed since the incredible images of US Airways Flight 1549 floating on the Hudson river in New York made international news.
In 2009, Twitter — founded in 2006 — was not widely used as a breaking news site the way people use it today, but all that changed when Janis Krums, who was riding the ferry, witnessed the amazing sight and decided to tweet about it.
Captain Chesley Sullenberger did the impossible; after a flock of birds jammed the engines of his Aibus A319, he landed the plane on the Hudson, saving all 155 people on board.
Twitter founders point to the “miracle on the Hudson” as a turning point for their social media site.
Jack Dorsey, co-founder of the social media site, told MSNBC in 2013:
“It changed everything. Suddenly the world turned its attention because we were the source of news—and it wasn’t us, it was this person in the boat using the service, which is even more amazing.”
Now, Twitter is the go-to website to follow any kind of breaking news events — a godsend for us who write about news on a daily basis.
With its ease of use when it comes to embeds — as readers can see below — Twitter is a great site to enhance any piece with photos that are sometimes shared in real time.
5 Year Anniversary of The Miracle on Hudson – Congrats to @Captsully on his miraculous landing. A true hero. pic.twitter.com/hpOdRtbViR
— J?nis Kr?ms (@jkrums) January 15, 2014
If Chesley Sullenberger’s “miracle” happened today, there would literally be thousands of people snapping photos from the scene and posting them to Twitter for us to see.
Janis Karmus can also be credited with helping Twitter take off. His forethought in the face of the mind boggling site of the plane on the Hudson started the trend of sharing news on the social site.
On Wednesday, he was the recipient of congratulations and encouragement for taking that historic snap of Chesley Sullenberger’s passengers on the emergency chutes waiting to be rescued.
RT @mashable: I Took the Iconic ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ Photo (written by @jkrums) http://t.co/Kcr0MPOSOL
— J?nis Kr?ms (@jkrums) January 15, 2014
Five years ago, Krums — who describes himself as an entrepreneur and has almost 11,000 followers — did what anyone would do today, share what he was seeing on Twitter.
Krums’ exact historic words on that day in 2009 were:
“There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on a ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.”
Krums’ tweet reached his 170 followers and also MSNBC, which interviewed him about 30-minutes later.
Chesley Sullenberger and Janis Krums put Twitter on the map — so to speak — and now anybody who is anybody has a Twitter account and uses it often, including news outlets, celebrities, and regular folks sharing breaking news.
