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A Utah native is one of the survivors of that US Airways crash into the Hudson River yesterday.
Melanie Klingler received an emotional call yesterday from her brother Darren Beck.
Klingler told us, "He called me yesterday, very soon after it happened, and told me he loved me and that I was his favorite sister. And I didn't really understand where that was going and kind of joked with him. And he said, ‘My plane just crashed.'"
Beck turned in his seat and looked out at the engine after a bird jolted the US Airways flight after it left La Guardia. "The blades were still spinning, but it was making a thumping sound every time it turned or spun around, sort of like something stuck in the washing machine," he said.
He said there was stunned silence on the flight, but he never thought he would die. "We started getting lower and lower and lower over the water. And he finally came on and said, ‘This is your captain. Brace for impact.' And that's all he said. Those aren't words you want to hear," he said.
Beck is married, has three children and graduated from the BYU Business School.
E-mail: tcallan@ksl.com
