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ACE OF GRACE

A “very, very nice” President Obama took time at an inaugural ball to chat, pose for photos and say, “Good job!” to the US Airways crew whose disabled plane miraculously crash-landed in the Hudson River, the co-pilot told The Post yesterday.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, had a backstage meeting with co-pilot Jeff Skiles, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, two flight attendants and their families. The group attended Tuesday’s inauguration at Obama’s invitation.

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Obama told the crew, “Good job!” during a 10-minute chat at the Neighborhood Ball, said Skiles, a 49-year-old married dad of three.

And the new president took the lead when he and Michelle posed with their guests for multiple photos, said Skiles. His interview at his Oregon, Wis., home was the first time a Flight 1549 crew member has spoken to the media since the Jan. 15 crash.

“He was pretty much directing the whole thing,” said Skiles. “He would be like, ‘Michelle goes here, I go there. And now, one just with the families.’ “

“He was a very, very nice guy,” said Skiles, whose wife, Barbara, campaigned for Obama in their neighborhood, a suburb of Madison, Wis.

Asked by a reporter how it felt being a hero for helping Sullenberger safely land the plane packed with 155 passengers and crew, Skiles modestly replied, “I’m just an airline pilot, and that’s what we do.

“We weren’t doing anything any other pilot wouldn’t have done.”

Skiles yesterday revealed that there was a third man in the cockpit that day – a member of another US Airlines crew who was hitching a ride.

Skiles said it was that unidentified man – not him, as previously reported – who gave the dry shirt off his back to passenger Barry Leonard, when the dripping-wet Leonard aborted an attempt to swim across the frigid Hudson to shore.