On January 15, 2009, the US Airways flight 1546 It took off from La Guardia Airport in New York, but never reached its destination. She planned to land a few hours later at Charlotte Airport in North Carolina and later do the same at Seattle-Tacoma Airport. She never left New York state.
He US Airways flight 1546 ended up in the Hudson River, in one of the most high-profile plane crashes of this century. The reason? A plane accident, in which the pilot’s skill saved everyone’s lives: he was able to land in the Hudson River, with very little maneuvering time and the outcome had a happy ending. A story that turns 15 today and that was forever portrayed in a great Clint Eastwood film whose title is that of its protagonist: Sully.
Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and his co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles were able to ditch in New York’s Hudson River with little damage to the aircraft or its passengers. In total, there were 150 passengers and five crew members on board. The plane was an Airbus A320, quite popular for these types of domestic trips.
The accident of US Airways flight 1546 was caused by a flock of geese
The causes of the accident are not unknown. Just two minutes after takeoff, just in the middle of the climb maneuver, when the plane was at an altitude of 850 meters, it was hit by a flock of Canadian geese, which damaged both engines, leaving the flight 1549 without propulsion at one of the most critical moments for an aircraft.
However, Sully and the cabin crew remained calm and put emergency protocols in place. Without propulsion and without the ability to restart the engines, they asked the Guard control tower for alternative runways to make an emergency landing. However, the plane was constantly losing altitude, making it impossible to go to an alternative airport with guarantees of arrival without propulsion:
The pilot made the decision to ditch over the Hudson River, the only “clue” they had at hand, through a maneuver known as ditching. At that time, the plane passed at minus 270 m over the George Washington Bridge. Sullenberger warned the crew to prepare for impact, and air traffic controllers asked the Coast Guard to warn ships in the Hudson and ask them to prepare to assist with the rescue.
Approximately ninety seconds later, the plane landed in the river without an engine, descending at about 230 km/h, in the middle area between the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in Manhattan and Port Imperial in Weehawken, New Jersey, with all its passengers without serious damage.
The final home of US Airways Flight 1546
Following the crash and subsequent rescue of the passengers and crew, the partially submerged aircraft was towed downstream and moored to a dock near the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, approximately 6 km from the landing site.
On January 17, just two days later, the plane was transferred to New Jersey, although not in its entirety. The left engine had detached from the aircraft after the impact in the Hudson, it was not recovered from the river bed until January 23.
Two years after the accident, the Carolinas Aviation Museum acquired the fuselage of the plane from its owner, the insurance company AIG, although the insurer ended up donating the plane to the museum. The wings and stabilizers were disassembled and it was transported by road more than 1,200 kilometers to its final destination, the museum, where it was reassembled to its state at the time of impact in the river.
The museum announced on January 14, 2022 that changed his name by Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, in honor of the pilot. The museum will house a permanent Miracle on the Hudson exhibit. “Sully,” the pilot, retired on March 3, 2010, after thirty years with US Airways and its predecessor, Pacific Southwest Airlines. On his last flight, he met Skiles, his second, and several of the passengers from Flight 1549.