Have I got it right in thinking they (fortuitously) landed ‘down current’ (for want of a better term)? If so, that ‘n’ knots less relative ground speed on touchdown might have been significant.
It was down current, and looking at the video of the floating airplane I do think there was enough to make a small difference (McGinty, I went back and looked at your post - three or four knots, perhaps?). I
think the overriding factor in choice of direction was to get the bird close to rescue personnel (mid-Mahattan), but we'll know for sure once the tapes are publicized (
) and the pilots start talking (if they want to). Yes, the ideal situation is to land with the current and into the wind. The sea state wasn't a real problem here, fortunately.