The Shot Seen Around the World
Remember the downed plane floating on the Hudson? How could anyone forget the picture of people crowded on the wing as the plane gently floated in the frigid January river.
Janis Krums was nearby as U.S. Air flight 1549 fell from the sky that day. Just moments after the crash, while onboard an approaching ferry, Janis snapped a picture with his iPhone and posted this on Twitter:
There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.
The few hundred people following Janis began spreading the word to their Twitter followers. Janis couldn't have imagined what was about to happen.
Within 30 minutes he was live on MSNBC and CNN. Good Morning America invited him into its studio. Then the BBC, 20/20, ABC, and Inside Edition followed. The morning after the crash, his picture was on the front page of major newspapers across the planet, and his e-mail inbox had more than 4,000 e-mails.
A few days after the shot, he posted this comment on his blog:
To say that the last couple of days have been crazy/intense or whatever adjective you want to use is an understatement. It was sheer madness for a while.
Clearly, Twitter can be a rapid catalyst for good news. And now for the dark side of Twitter . . .
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