It should be noted that Capt. Sullenberger was one of those apparently increasingly rare birds, an airline captain with extensive and current hands-on flying experience.

I was not aware of Langewiesche's book until now, so perhaps you can tell us if the automation handled the flare, which I believe would have been the most critical stage of this landing (if the fuselage had broken, as has happened in many other ditchings, it is unlikely that everyone would have made it out.) If so, did those systems compensate for the fact that the wheels were not down and so touchdown would be made on the engine nacelles with the fuselage closer to the surface than for a normal landing? From the video, it appeared to be a near-perfect three-point landing, which is not the attitude an airliner normally lands in.