Also listening to the coordinator whilst the emergency was occurring and in the aftermath (PD helicopters screaming to the site, runway checks, using kennedy to find a PD chopper, holding departures and arrivals for a decent amount of time, updating kennedy, teterboro, newark, port authority, PD etc etc etc)....I was in awe.
For example, it can't be easy to hold arrivals to LGA on a weekday afternoon on short notice. Or to manage multiple helicopters converging on each other...Or then quickly switch to the expressway approach.
I'm not a controller (not even close), so listening to how quickly they managed to get everything done, knowing that a plane went down, and making it seem routine, even if it was procedural -> damn impressive.
Few professions demand such a high reserve in human capacity for achievement. After years in EMS I can relate to the variations in stress of ATC. Things here went from routine to potentially disastrous in seconds, and the cascade of action by the controllers, and responders, and of course the pilots, made sure everything that needed to be done got done, very quickly.
Few individuals could have made this whole event sound procedural, but you controllers, especially in the NY area, continually show that responding to disaster and rising to the occasion are well within your capacity.