Fewer than 6 minutes after takeoff flight 1549 was in the water

NY Times:

...

Ms. Higgins said that the air traffic controllers cleared Flight 1549, with 155 people aboard, for takeoff from LaGuardia at 3:24:54. The first response of distress came at 3:27:32.

“Ah, this is Cactus 1549,” came the call from the flight deck. Ms. Higgins said she did not know if the pilot, Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III or the co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles, was speaking. “Hit birds. We lost thrust in both engines. We are turning back towards LaGuardia.”

Radar from Kennedy and Newark Airport confirmed that the aircraft had intersected “primary targets” between 2,900 feet and 3,000 feet, Ms. Higgins said, almost certainly birds that were about five miles from LaGuardia Airport.

The air traffic controller asked if Flight 1549 wanted to land on Runway 13. “We’re unable, we may end up in the Hudson,” came the response.

Dismissing the notion of trying to land at Teterboro Airport, six miles west, in New Jersey, the response from the cockpit was, “We can’t do it.”

When asked which runway the pilot wanted to land on, the answer was:

“We’re going to be in the Hudson.”

The plane splashed down at 3:30:30, Ms. Higgins said.

...

Hazy smoke started to fill the plane, and the pilot said on the address system, “Brace for impact.”

Flight attendants then ordered the passengers, without an intercom, to “brace, brace with your heads down.”

Once the plane came to rest in the Hudson, the captain issued a one-word command: “evacuate.” One flight attendant went to open the left front door, Ms. Higgins said, and the other went to the right door.

...

It took only three minutes and two seconds from report of impact with birds until touchdown in the water. While maneuvering the plane for a landing in the Hudson the flight crew kept advising the air traffic controller that the plane was unable to get to the alternative landings. It takes a pretty cool head to safely land a plane in the water with no power in such a short period of time. No doubt they also had to lower the flaps for the landing too. The video of the landing shows the evacuation took about one minute. Rescue boats were in the area almost immediately.

The story includes an interesting interview with the flight attendants about the landing and the evacuation.