Jan. 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. radar data and witness accounts support early reports that bird strikes may have forced a US Airways Group Inc. plane’s “miracle on the Hudson” splashdown this week in which all 155 people on board survived.

The plane intersected “a string of primary targets” that may have been birds at an altitude of 2,900 to 3,000 feet, 90 seconds after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, said Kitty Higgins, a National Transportation Safety Board member.

“We’re gonna be in the Hudson” was the last communication between one of the pilots and air-traffic controllers before the splashdown, Higgins told reporters at a briefing in New York. She didn’t identify which of the two pilots was speaking.

Authorities released the new evidence as they began lifting the Airbus SAS A320 out of the river and onto a barge, where the plane will undergo inspection and the so-called black boxes will be retrieved. Higgins said she is hopeful the plane, which weighs a million pounds full of water, will be on the barge today.

The plane came down Jan. 15 after the pilot reported birds striking the engines, robbing them of power. It was New York Governor David Paterson who called it the “miracle on the Hudson” because of the lack of fatalities on Flight 1549.

At the Controls

“Ah, this is Cactus 1549, hit birds, we lost thrust in both engines, we’re turning back toward LaGuardia,” the pilot told controllers in the first communication of trouble, Higgins said.

The controller asked the pilot if he wanted to land at LaGuardia’s Runway 13, and the pilot responded, “We’re unable, we may end up in the Hudson.” After discussion about diverting to nearby Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, the pilot said, “We can’t do it,” according to Higgins.

The pilots, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, 58, and First Officer Jeffrey B. Skiles, 49, set down the plane gently enough to keep it afloat while nearby ferries recovered passengers in freezing weather. Higgins said she doesn’t yet know which of the two pilots was at the controls.

The plane touched down at 3:30 p.m., about five minutes after takeoff, Higgins said.

‘Complete Silence’

During the flight, two cabin attendants reported hearing “a loud thud, thump,” Higgins said. “It was a sound that neither one of them had ever heard before.”

All engine noised ceased, Higgins said, citing the flight attendants’ account.

“They described it as complete silence,” Higgins said. “It was like being in a library.”

The flight attendants said they heard a passenger sitting in the first-class cabin, and looking out the window, say “I think we hit birds,” according to Higgins.

The captain announced “Brace for impact,” and the flight attendants shouted, “Brace, brace, heads down,” Higgins said.

Attendants felt the impact on the water and “likened it to a hard landing,” Higgins said. “One impact, no bounce.” Neither of the attendants realized they were in the water, she said.

The captain then issued a one-word command, “Evacuate,” said Higgins, citing the attendants.

Missing Engine

Officials today continued searching by sonar in the Hudson River for the plane’s missing engine, which was attached when the aircraft came down and may have shaken loose upon landing, Higgins said. She said her report yesterday that both engines came loose was incorrect.

The effort to hoist the plane has been slowed by currents in the 30-foot-deep water and the fact that the plane’s right wing is wedged under a public walkway where it’s moored at the Hudson shoreline, Higgins said. Authorities need to move the plane laterally to free up the right wing and then slowly hoist it.

The plane will be hauled on a barge to what Higgins called an undisclosed location for further examination. The “black boxes” -- the flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders that will be retrieved -- are designed to store information such as what pilots were saying and how they manipulated flight controls.

To contact the reporters on this story: John Hughes in Washington at jhughes5@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: January 17, 2009 18:19 EST