Jan 16, 2009 5:23 pm US/Eastern
Plane Crash Survivors' Injuries Not Just Physical
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A passenger is taken to a ambulance after being rescued from the Hudson River after a US Airways plane with more than 150 people aboard went down in the Hudson River January 15, 2009 after taking off from LaGuardia.
Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
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Passengers of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 stand on the right wing, and float on an emergency exit chute, after the plane crashed into the frigid Hudson River in New York City, as photographed by a man on one of several ferry boats that responded to the scene.
Janis Krums
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Passengers are rescued from US Airway Flight 1549 Airbus A320 jet after it crashed in Hudson River, New York.
AP
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Passengers in an inflatable raft move away from US Airway Flight 1549 Airbus A320 jet after it crashed in Hudson River.
AP
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A US Airways plane floats in the water near the coast after crashing into the Hudson River in the afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, near the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.
Julian Ungano/Getty Images
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A US Airways plane floats in the water near the coast after crashing into the Hudson River in the afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, near the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.
Julian Ungano/Getty Images
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A US Airways plane floats in the water near the coast after crashing into the Hudson River in the afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, near the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.
Julian Ungano/Getty Images
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A US Airways plane floats in the water near the coast after crashing into the Hudson River in the afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, near the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.
Julian Ungano/Getty Images
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A US Airways plane floats in the water near the coast after crashing into the Hudson River in the afternoon on Jan. 15, 2009, near the Battery Park neighborhood in New York City.
Julian Ungano/Getty Images
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U.S. Airways Flight 1549, en route from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., floats on the Hudson River in New York moments after the FAA said a flock of birds disabled both engines. Authorities said 78 of the 155 souls aboard were hurt, but none killed.
Kathryn Brown/CBS
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U.S. Airways Flight 1549, en route from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, N.C., floats on the Hudson River in New York moments after the FAA said a flock of birds disabled both engines. Authorities said 78 of the 155 souls aboard were hurt, but none killed.
Kathryn Brown/CBS
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US Airways flight 1549 went down into the Hudson River near New York City on Jan. 15, 2009.
CBS
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Flight 1549 is that the most serious injury was someone with two broken legs. But what about the injuries that you can't see?
While it seems the physical injuries were mostly bumps and bruises, rare is the person who can face the terror of near-certain death without suffering some sort of emotional trauma.
Flight 1549 lasted all of seven minutes, after which passengers spent about 5 minutes in the water before everyone was rescued. That's 12 minutes of unimaginable fear that most people will never know.
"I don't know what happened," survivor Diane said. "There was an explosion on the plane, and we had to make an emergency landing in the water."
Dr. Alan Manevitz, an expert in psychological trauma, says that right now, the passengers and crew will be hyper-excited and reliving those 12 minutes of terror.
"Anything from excitement to anxiety, to tears, to relief, to numbness, to almost no reaction is normal in the course of the 48 hours after an event like this," Manevitz says.
Over the next month, those feelings of hyper-arousal may continue, while others may feel the exact opposite, or swing from highs to lows.
"You can see an airplane or hear a story and get excited again, or feel numb or detached, or feel a set of emotions from anything from anger to depression or anxiety," Manevitz says.
The fact that there were no fatalities does lessen the psychological trauma, but there will still be some people who, over the next months or even years, experience what experts call PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder.
"[Those emotions are] interfering with your functioning, they're interfering with your ability to have loving feelings toward your family," Manevitz says. "You may avoid things that remind you of it, so obviously, if it's an airplane, you might want to avoid trips. But you may even get nervous when you hear a plane flying overhead."
It's important to not that no one reaction to this kind of stress or psychological trauma is "normal." Different people will react with a wide range of emotions.
Regardless of the reaction, there is help for victims of emotional trauma, both with talk therapy and medications. The important thing is to seek that help.
(CBS)
2009 Celebrity Deaths
CBS News Interactive: Eye On Air Safety
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