The pilots of the US Airways plane that ditched into the Hudson River in New York last month initially thought they could return the crippled plane to LaGuardia Airport or land at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. But they quickly realized the river was where they were headed.

According to transcripts of air-traffic-control communications with the stricken plane released Thursday by the Federal Aviation Administration, an unidentified pilot calmly said: "Hit birds. We lost thrust in both engines. We're turning back towards...