OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Danville man who piloted the downed Airbus A-320 jet that crashed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon is being hailed as a hero for his expert flying skills and selfless actions.

Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III did a remarkable job guiding the US Airways Airbus A-320 jetliner to a relatively low-impact emergency water landing on the Hudson.

"[He] was phenomenal," passenger Joe Hart said. "He landed it -- I tell you what -- the impact wasn't a whole lot more than a rear-end (collision). It threw you into the seat ahead of you."

"Both engines cut out and he actually floated it into the river," he added.

The pilot "did a masterful job of landing the plane in the river and then making sure that everybody got out," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "He walked the plane twice after everybody else was off, and tried to verify that there was nobody else on board, and he assures us there was not."

"He was the last one up the aisle and he made sure that there was nobody behind him."

Gov. David Paterson pronounced it a "miracle on the Hudson."

Passenger Jeff Kolodjay of Norwalk, Conn., said he heard a single explosion two or three minutes into the flight. He said looked out the left side of the plane and saw one of the engines on fire.

"The captain said, 'Brace for impact because we're going down,"' Kolodjay said. He added: "It was intense. It was intense. You've got to give it to the pilot. He made a hell of a landing."

Witnesses said the plane's pilot appeared to guide the plane down. Bob Read, a television producer who saw the crash from his office window, said it appeared to be a "controlled descent."

Less than minute after a normal takeoff, Sullenberger probably heard and felt the thumps. He hastily radioed his air controller "double bird strike" and asked to return to LaGuardia airport. As he turned back, he saw an airstrip beneath him and got emergency clearance to land there in northern New Jersey instead. He never made it.

The controller's clearance for an emergency landing at Teterboro Airport, a suburban field used primarily by commuter and private aircraft, was the last radio communication between the Airbus A320 and controllers. So there was no immediate explanation for how and why the pilot changed his mind again and managed to ditch the plane in the Hudson River without any fatalities among the more than 150 people aboard.

"There was no 'mayday' or emergency distress signal from the plane's transponder during the entire episode, which lasted about five or six minutes," according to Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Church provided this reconstruction of the pilot-controller conversation after speaking with employees at the New York TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control Center) in Westbury, N.Y., which was handling the aircraft after its takeoff from LaGuardia's Runway 4.

The LaGuardia tower controller had already handed the jetliner off to the controller at the TRACON, which handles aircraft after liftoff until they get about 40 miles out or 10,000 to 12,000 feet up. The TRACON controller ordered the A320 to climb to 1,500 feet and turn left.

About 30 to 45 seconds after the takeoff, as he climbed to the assigned altitude, the pilot reported the bird strikes and asked to go back to LaGuardia right away. Church said the pilot apparently meant that birds had hit both of the plane's jet engines.

The controller gave him the heading for a return to LaGuardia and told him Runway 13 was available for him to land there.

As the pilot began to follow those orders over northern New Jersey, he looked down, saw an airstrip and asked, "What airport is that?"

The controller replied: "That's Teterboro."

The pilot said he wanted to land there.

The controller then gave instructions to divert the aircraft to Teterboro's Runway 1 for an emergency landing.

And that was the last radio contact between the controller and pilot. Church estimated by that point the aircraft might have reached about 5,000 feet.

Despite the lack of a mayday call, controllers handled the situation as an emergency, Church said.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said US Airways Flight 1549 took off at 3:26 p.m. EST. The plane took off on Runway 4, made a left turn and crashed roughly three minutes later, Brown said.

"We understand that there were eyewitness reports the plane may have flown into a flock of birds," Brown said. She said the left turn is the "the normal takeoff procedure from that runway. ... They were in a normal configuration."

"Right now we don't have any indication this was anything other than an accident," Brown said.

Sullenberger is no stranger to handling a crisis. Aside from his duties as a pilot, he is the president and CEO of Safety Reliability Methods, a consulting firm providing solutions to complex problems involving safety, high performance and high reliability, often involving commercial aviation.

Sullenberger, who has flown for US Airways since 1980, flew F-4 fighter jets with the Air Force in the 1970s. He then served on a board that investigated aircraft accidents and participated later in several National Transportation Safety Board investigations.

Sullenberger had been studying the psychology of keeping airline crews functioning even in the face of crisis, said Robert Bea, a civil engineer who co-founded UC Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.

Bea said he could think of few pilots as well-situated to bring the plane down safely than Sullenberger.

"When a plane is getting ready to crash with a lot of people who trust you, it is a test. Sully proved the end of the road for that test. He had studied it, he had rehearsed it, he had taken it to his heart."

He is president of Safety Reliability Methods, a California firm that uses "the ultra-safe world of commercial aviation" as a base for safety consulting in other fields, according to the firm's Web site.

Sullenberger's mailbox at the firm was full on Thursday. A group of fans sprang up on Facebook within hours of the emergency landing.

"OMG, I am terrified of flying but I would be happy to be a passenger on one of your aircraft!!" Melanie Wills in Bristol wrote on the wall of "Fans of Sully Sullenberger." "You have saved a lot of peoples lives and are a true hero!!"

A woman who answered the phone at Sullenberger's home in Danville hung up on a reporter who asked to speak with the family.

Candace Anderson, a member of the Danville town council who lives a few blocks from Sullenberger, said it was an amazing story and she was proud to live in the same town as the pilot.

"You look at his training, you look at his experience. It was just the right pilot at the right time in charge of that plane that saved so many lives," Anderson said. "He is a man who is calm, cool, collected, just as he was today."