Amazing there is not a single word about the copilot’s role. Did he swallow a goose too? Did he sit there just watching with his hands under his buttock? Or is it that for cost reduction, there is no longer copilots needed on A320s? 
Just the usual perception that the co-pilot just sits there and does nothing while the Captain handles the radio’s, gear, flaps, navigates and flies the airplane all with a flight attendant sitting on his lap.
I did see the co-pilot’s name mentioned once!!
I did see his name mentioned ONCE. Only once. Wasn’t as cool a name as “Sully” though…
Co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles, was in control of the Airbus on departure.
Full story here; Click Here ‘New York Times’.
EVERYONE knows the co-pilot did his job. He said “Good landing Captain,” and thats it. Sully was pilot flying and pilot on the radios - he did it all with this landing.
The co-pilot was probably busy trying to restart one of the two engines. He probably also pushed the ‘ditch’ button.
Per CNN, they never got that far. Ditch button apparently is one of the last things on the emergency checklist and 3 minutes wasn’t enough time to engage that option.
Also as you stated above, per what I read on CNN, the co-pilot was going through the “complicated” (their words) procedures on restarting the engines
Given the situation they were in (and we’ll see how much of this the CVR reveals) “Sully” was flying and communicating, and Skiles was assessing what systems were lost and managing those that were available. About the only thing that could be done was to ensure that the “start/ignition” switches were “on”, and that there was fuel flow to the engines. With FADEC engines there’s nothing else to do…they’ll either run or they won’t. And depending how much damage the engines sustained, they were either going to stay “lit” and make power or they weren’t. The crew got the latter… and there is no other “re-start” procedure that was going to make any difference, regardless of what “CNN” tries to spout.
I guarantee that Skiles was performing primarily Emergency checklist “memory items” rather than line-by-line checklist discipline. I’m certain that he was quite busy responding to Sully’s call-outs for configuring, and instinctively accomplishing checklist items preparing for the “ditch”… which requires depressing one button on the cabin pressurization panel. Then all Skiles could do was what he does for a normal landing. After they came to a stop in the water, it was a matter of running emergency procedures to secure the aircraft systems, and attending to the safe evacutation of the passengers.
Just off of CNN.com. Article is on the “Squawks” page referencing the recovery of the missing engine:
[www.cnn.com]In addition to Sullenberger, officials, passengers and others have lauded First Officer Jeffrey B. Skiles, 49, as well as rescuers, who acted quickly to minimize passengers’ injuries in below-freezing temperature and frigid water. Neither Sullenberger nor Skiles have spoken publicly about the incident.