Witness to challenge flight attendant's story

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Witness to challenge flight attendant's story

By JOAN LOWY


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Passengers on the plane that ditched into the Hudson River in January have told a federal safety panel that it was a flight attendant - not a panicked passenger - who opened a rear door on the aircraft, sending water rushing into the cabin.

The National Transportation Safety Board has scheduled three days of hearings next week on safety issues arising from the forced landing of US Airways Flight 1549 into the Hudson between New York and New Jersey on Jan. 15. The first two witnesses are the flight's captain, Chesley Sullenberger, and passenger Billy Campbell, who was seated in the second-to-last row of the Airbus A320.

Board member Robert Sumwalt, who will chair the hearing, said that Campbell has told NTSB investigators that it was flight attendant Doreen Welsh who cracked open the door, not a passenger.

Following the ditching, Welsh said in media interviews and testimony before Congress that a passenger pushed past her to open the door.

"That's what we want to straighten out. We want to get his testimony on that, was it a passenger or a flight attendant?" Sumwalt said in an interview.

Several passengers interviewed by investigators have given similar accounts, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said.

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