Jorgensen's group of stranded passengers was picked up by a New Jersey ferry. As the other passengers were loaded onto the ferry, Jorgensen kept busy asking if he could help in any way, but was told, "Dude, chill out. Go inside and relax."

At one point in the ferry, Jorgensen stared at the enormous plane floating nearby and found himself thinking, "damn, I wish could get in there right now. My laptop's in there, all my stuff is right there. It's not underwater yet. If I could just grab my laptop bag, I'd have all my data. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I was contemplating it. That's how much stuff I had in there that I didn't want to lose. I didn't want to deal with losing all that."

From a ferry terminal, Jorgensen's group was taken a short distance away to a senior center in Weehawken, N.J., on the shore of the Hudson. When Jorgensen was paged over the senior center's intercom and told he had a phone call, he was startled to hear his boss's voice on the other end of the line.

"My boss is one of the greatest guys in the world. He knew I had been in the plane. He tracked me down at the senior center." Jorgensen said he filled his boss in on the details of the crash and even joked with his boss. Eventually, he was asked what he'd lost on the flight, which included credit cards, driver's license, paperwork, cell phone and his laptop.

"I only had the coat on my back," he said.