seymour woman in plane crash sees hopeful future

By Kim Steele

SEYMOUR – Debbie Ramsey gingerly pulled out a sketch of the hands of God holding an airplane up in the water as she talked about her experience during the recent crash of a jetliner in the Hudson River.

“I was really scared, but I felt God there,” said Ramsey from the cozy kitchen of her Seymour home this week. “I felt at peace. When we hit the water, there was a crash and we bounced up and around, but the plane stayed level. I knew God had his hand on me, and I knew I was going to survive this.”

The sketch, created by newspaper artist Rex Babin of the Sacramento Bee in California, means a lot to Ramsey, as does a drawing by Logan Emory, 8, the son of one of her close friends. The boy, a student at Phi Beta Phi in Gatlinburg, penciled the drawing during class as he watched it on the news, without knowing Ramsey was on that aircraft.

Ramsey, 48, was on her way back January 15 from a buying trip in New York City for a clothing store when her jetliner, US Air Flight 1549, went down in the Hudson River. The 155 people on board survived the plunge into the freezing water.

Federal aviation officials speculate the crash was caused when the airplane flew into a flock of birds less than a minute after taking off from LaGuardia Airport. The plane was on its way to Charlotte, N.C.

Ramsey, the manager/buyer of the New York New York clothing store in the Tanger Outlet Mall in Pigeon Forge, said she had flown to the Big Apple in November to buy a winter line of clothes. She returned January 12 to buy the spring clothing line.

Ramsey said she got to LaGuardia Airport and boarded the plane, sitting in seat 13A, a window seat two rows from an emergency exit. Ramsey said she took her coat off, settled in and called her husband, Jerry Ramsey, then pocketed her cell phone.

“Several minutes after we took off, I remembered that my identification necklace was in my coat pocket and I turned to put it around my neck, when I heard a big boom,” Ramsey said. “I looked out the window and saw fire and smoke coming from the engine.”

Ramsey said she asked the man seated next to her if a plane could fly on one engine, and he said it could make it back to the airport that way. When the man realized Ramsey was beginning to panic, he pointed out the old and new Yankees stadium to her.

At that point, Ramsey said, the pilot spoke over the intercom and told the passengers to brace for impact. The man next to her told Ramsey to lean over, put her head down and hold on really tight because it would get rough.

“I held on to my seat and opened my phone to the picture of my 2-year-old grandson, Jack, in a Santa outfit and said ‘Dear God, please don’t take me today. Get me home’,” Ramsey said. “I heard a lot of other people praying. When we landed, it was wonderful.”

Ramsey said she unclipped her seat belt and noticed the man and woman in her row had already left. She said people were pushing and the walkway was packed, so she turned around, grabbed her seat cushion and climbed over two rows of seats to get to the exit, where a man let her out in front of him.

“I was on the wing,” Ramsey continued. “There was an inflatable boat, but it was twisted. I slid into the water and it was waist-high, and a man grabbed me, pulled me back up and said ‘I won’t let you fall.’ I called my husband on my cell phone and told him what happened and that I was OK.”

Ramsey said the water was scary at that point, because she was cold from sliding in earlier and couldn’t feel her legs. She held on to the pants waist of the man in front of her and they baby-stepped to the end of the wing so they could get on an approaching ferry.

As the boat came toward them, Ramsey said, she feared it would knock them off the wing. The man pulled her to him so she wouldn’t fall off, and Ramsey reached up and grabbed a net hanging from the boat, climbing up with her arms because she couldn’t fit her shoes into the net.

Finally, she stuck her shoes in the holes, but they got stuck and she had to leave them there. Ramsey said a lady in the water grabbed her leg and almost made her lose her grip on the net, but she felt two hands push her up from behind while someone grabbed her from above and pulled her into the boat.

“There were six of us on the boat and no blankets, and I went to a man who was completely wet and started rubbing him to get him warm,” Ramsey said. “Another girl who was soaked sat down, and I made her get up and I rubbed her, too.”

Ramsey said the emergency workers knew just what to do and took them to a restaurant on the New Jersey side, where the passengers were wrapped in table cloths, given cooks’ white pants and fed warm soup. Then they went to a survivor center, where workers kept count with necklaces that said survivor, injured or deceased, if applicable.

“It really hit me at the restaurant, and I broke down and wanted my family with me,” Ramsey said, noting a man there stayed with her and comforted her. “That’s the first time I saw it on television, and I couldn’t believe I made it out.”

Since then, Ramsey’s life has turned upside down, and she has been interviewed by radio, newspaper and television. She and her husband were flown to New York City last week, where she met with four other survivors for a taped interview with 60 Minutes on CBS.

She will return to New York on February 9 for a live, on-air meeting on the same show with the pilot, Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger.

Ramsey said she still has residual problems because of the crash. She has trouble sleeping at night, and must take medication when she flies on an airplane so she doesn’t panic.

She also realizes that timing is everything – another 45 minutes would have brought shift change on the river, with barges floating everywhere. And another 900 feet would have sent the plane into the George Washington Bridge instead of the river.

But the wife, mother and grandmother from Seymour knows there is a reason for everything that happens in life.

“I was letting life pass me by,” Ramsey said. “Now I know that God has a purpose for me – and that’s to be a better person. Something like this makes you realize what’s important in life. Now I’m enjoying life because I realize it can be taken away in a second.”

Ramsey said people have been wonderful to her since the crash, and strangers have stopped to hug her wherever she’s gone. And Eddie Bauer, owner of the store named after him, sent her a down coat to replace the one she lost in the crash.

“I think the future holds no more than what I can handle,” Ramsey said. “I know that now. Whatever it gives, I’ll take it in stride. I hope for a full and happy life watching my grandson grow up.”