I'm aware; there was certainly lag time between the event & the reporting, though. It's relatively likely that the PIC knew of the emergency declaration 10-20 minutes before it was triggering push notifications on devices. Regardless, I'm legitimately curious what the outcome of his flight was that day.

I'd bet the average pilot does not get any notification in advance of the general public unless they are in the midst of an incident in progress, and then it would be ATC notifying them. Even then, probably just enough info to keep them safe.

So unless they were actually at the airport where 1549 took off, it's possible they didn't even hear about it until the evening news.

In emergency situations, flights on the ground are held on the ground, planes in the air get pushed to a holding pattern or diverted depending on need. ATC wants to give the plane in distress clear air to make the maneuvers needed without worrying about traffic.