Well, you know you're going backwards when not only your Orion capsule is regressing to water recoveries, but even your airliners are splashing down, too...
I wouldn't be surprised if video of the landing shows up somewhere. It's New York, there are always cameras running somewhere. They interviewed a guy on the radio (NPR) who said he was in an office building and the woman next to him said, "Um...um...um...there's a ...plane?" He got up and looked out the window and said he saw the jet wings level in a very slow, controlled glide, and watched it impact the water in a very straightforward manner. It being winter and cold as s**+, I imagine the Hudson was pretty flat water, as it usually is anyway. You don't get much surf up there. And the pilot, bless his soul, obviously needs a big tall beer and a big fat raise, as well as a paycheck from US Air for life teaching pilots how to handle emergencies without losing your cool.
One of the passengers on the radio said he saw an engine spitting flames, and then everybody got real quiet, until just before splashdown the pilot said calmly over the intercom, "Brace for impact".
Yeah, the nice thing about a water landing is that when you get out of the plane your wet pants hide what you just did inside them.
