Ten years ago, the world of aviation was flabbergasted by an event that was later named the "Miracle
on the Hudson." That day, two airline pilots had to use the only runway they could safely
reach for an emergency landing - the narrow expanse of the Hudson River in New York City.
How could such a critical situation not take any human lives? Let's figure it out.
On January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 was a routine flight from La Guardia Airport
in New York to Charlotte Douglas Airportin North Carolina. The captain of the Airbus
A-320 was 57-year-old Chelsey Sullenberger (nicknamed “Sully”), an expert on aviation
safety and a former glider pilot. Before joining civil aviation in 1980, he’d been a fighter
pilot and served in the United States Air Force. By this fateful day, Sullenberger had
already logged over 19,000 flight hours, including almost 5,000 in an A320. First Officer was
49-year-old Jeffrey Skiles, with over 15,000 flight hours, although none of them were on
an Airbus A320. Besides the two pilots, there were 150 passengers and three cabin crew members
on board the plane. It's shocking how fast something so life-altering
and scary can happen. One moment the pilots fill their jet with fuel, and the plane takes
off, and two minutes later, it loses all the engine power and is about to drop out of the
sky. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. At 3:24 PM, the pilots were all set and ready,
and the La Guardia Airport control tower cleared the flight for takeoff. All the equipment
worked without a flaw, and the weather was great, with 10-mile (16 km) visibility that
provided the cockpit crew with a breathtaking view of the Hudson. How could they know that
very soon, the Hudson River would be their only hope for survival?
In any case, that flight was just like any other routine and unremarkable flight captain
Sullenberger had flown in the past 40 years of his career. Well, certainly for the first
100 seconds. The cockpit crew spent this time gaining altitude and performing a series of
necessary in-flight tasks. And then, abruptly, it happened.
At 3:27 PM, with the plane moving at 316 ft (96 m) per second, captain Sullenberger noticed
a flock of Canada geese just a moment before the plane struck the birds. Moving at such
a high speed at the altitude of 2,800 ft (about 854 m), the pilots could not avoid the collision.
They could only stare, helplessly, at the large birds that filled their view.
Then, the aircraft shuddered, and everybody inside heard rumbling sounds and deafening
bangs coming from the engines. The passengers sitting in the window seats saw flames coming
out of the engines and then... there was only a deafening silence and the gut-wrenching
smell of fuel. Every person on the plane must have been thinking at that moment, "It can't
be happening to me!" However, Sully didn't lose his presence of
mind, even after he realized that both engines had shut down. He understood there was no
chance that the aircraft would end up somewhere on a runway, undamaged. So, just seconds after
the collision, Sullenberger sprang into action. He took over control while Skiles was trying
to restart the engines. Unfortunately, his first attempt didn't bring any result. But
then, the co-pilot managed to at least turn on the auxiliary power unit (APU); without
which, the aircraft would have been uncontrollable. The pilots wouldn't be able to go left or
right, up or down, and the plane would be literally falling out of the sky.
With the APU on, the plane was still climbing, but it was visibly slowing down. After reaching
a height of 3,060 ft (930 m), the aircraft started a gliding descent while speeding up
to 240 miles (390 kph) per hour. At 3:28 PM, it had already descended 1,650 ft (500 m).
The situation was dire and required immediate actions.
Some 20 seconds after the plane lost its engine power, Captain Sullenberger sent out a Mayday
distress call. "Hit the birds, no thrust in both engines, back to La Guardia," was his
desperate report. Air traffic controller Patrick Harten ordered the airport tower to halt all
departures and told Sullenberger to head for Runway 13. But the captain responded with
only one word, "Unable." By that time, the experienced pilot had already realized that
the plane wouldn't be able to make it back to the airport. He told Harten that they might
end up in the Hudson. The air traffic controller couldn't believe his ears and didn't want
to accept the terrifying truth. He tried to find a way to get the plane to the runway,
but at 3:29 PM, Sullenberger repeated his words, only this time, he sounded even more
sure: the plane WAS going to end up in the river.
Even though Sullenberger had never performed such a maneuver before, he was ready to sacrifice
the plane to save the lives of the passengers and crew. The only place in the densely populated
New York Metropolitan area that would be long, wide, and smooth enough to land a heavy plane
descending at breakneck speed was the Hudson River. After realizing this, the captain spent
the next three seconds (an extravagant amount of time in those circumstances) to make his
only announcement. Sounding confident and calm, he said, "This is the Captain. Brace
for impact." Immediately after this, he heard the cabin
crew shouting commands to the passengers, telling them to brace and stay down. The pilots
couldn't pay attention to anything but the descent. The plane flew less than 900 ft (270
m) over the George Washington Bridge while the co-pilot was calling out the airspeed
and altitude of the plane. The cockpit was filled with warnings repeated by a computerized
voice, "Terrain, too low, too low, caution terrain, pull up, pull up, pull up." And then,
at 3:31 PM, the plane skidded into the river. The impact was hard, but the plane was afloat
and miraculously intact. Almost in unison, the pilots exclaimed, "It wasn't as bad as
I had thought!" But naturally, that wasn't the end of the story - the crew had to evacuate
people from a plane that was floating in the middle of the river!
Once the plane stopped on the river’s surface, the cabin crew started the evacuation. Some
of the passengers escaped to the plane's wings; others jumped onto rafts. Earlier, the air
traffic controllers had contacted the Coast Guard and asked them to prepare for assisting
with the rescue. That's why just four minutes after the river landing, the first rescue
boats began to arrive. But the situation was far from safe. One panicked
passenger opened one of the rear doors, and the flight attendant couldn’t manage to
seal it again. Water started to fill the plane through this door as well as through a hole
in the fuselage. The water level was rising fast, and the cabin crew was urging the passengers
to climb over the seats and move forward. It wasn't an easy feat since one of the passengers
couldn't move without a wheelchair. But eventually, after checking the cabin twice, Captain Sullenberger
confirmed that everyone had evacuated. The Hudson water temperature was just 41 degrees
F (5 degrees C), and some people had to stand knee-deep in the water to be rescued since
some of the inflatable slides were partially submerged. Some passengers were standing on
the wings wearing life-vests, others, fearing that the plane would explode, swam away from
it. In no time, rescue ferries began to take people aboard, starting with those who were
crammed on the wings. The last person was evacuated at 3:55 PM.
It's said that when Sullenberger got to the ferry, he immediately called US Airways, trying
to inform them about the situation. However, the airline operations manager brushed him
off, saying they had a more urgent issue with a plane down in the Hudson. "I know it," the
captain said, "I'm that guy." No wonder this accident was named the "Miracle
on the Hudson." Against all odds, it didn't end in a tragedy. Far from it: all the passengers
and crew members were alive; there were only 5 serious injuries, and 78 people received
some sort of treatment, mostly for hypothermia and minor injuries. The partially submerged
plane was later brought to a pier in Lower Manhattan, 4 miles (6 km) from the place where
they’d landed. When the authorities investigated afterward,
they tested whether it would have been possible for the plane to return to La Guardia airport
safely. The answer was no. What's more, it turned out that even a 35-second delay would
have killed all the people on board the plane and even more on the ground in the attempt.
Also, the ditching maneuver Sullenberger had performed was called the most successful in
the history of aviation. On January 22, 2009, all the aircraft's crew
members got Master's Medals, an award which is given very rarely and only for outstanding
aviation achievements. Those who took part in the rescue operation were awarded as well;
they got Certificates of Honor. In September 2016, people all over the world went to cinemas
to watch the Warner Bros. movie "Sully: Miracle on the Hudson," based on the events of that
unique flight.
Have you heard any other stories about planes landing on the water safely, or some other
miraculous landing? Let me know down in the comments! If you learned something new today,
then give this video a like and share it with a friend.
But – hey! – don't go anywhere just yet! We have over 2,000 cool videos for you to
check out. All you have to do is pick the left or right video, click on it, and enjoy!
Stay on the Bright Side of life!