On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 with call sign ‘CACTUS 1549’ was scheduled to fly from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte Douglas, with direct onward service to Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The aircraft was an Airbus A320-214 powered by two GE Aviation/Snecma-designed CFM56-5B4/P turbofan engines.
The pilot in command was 57-year-old Chesley B. Sullenberger, a former fighter pilot who had been an airline pilot since leaving the United States Air Force in 1980. At the time, he had logged 19,663 total flight hours, including 4,765 in an A320; he was also a glider pilot and expert on aviation safety. First officer Jeffrey B. Skiles, 49, had accrued 15,643 career flight hours, but this was his first Airbus A320 assignment since qualifying to fly it. There were 150 passengers and three flight attendants aboard.
After takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, airplane struck a flock of Canada geese just northeast of the George Washington Bridge and consequently lost all engine power. Unable to reach any airport, pilots glided the plane to a ditching in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. All 155 people aboard were rescued by nearby boats and there were few serious injuries. The accident came to be known as the “Miracle on the Hudson“.
What happened?
3.24pm
The A320 begins its acceleration along the 7,000 feet of one of LaGuardia’s twin runways. Almost fully laden, and weighing around 150,000lbs, it reaches its take-off speed of 170mph and begins its ascent.
3.26pm
The pilots contact air traffic control and then, at an altitude of 700 feet and travelling at around 230mph, Flight 1549 is cleared to continue its ascent to 15,000 feet.
3.27pm
The plane is at an altitude of 3,000 feet directly above The Bronx and travelling at 250mph when it encounters a flock of Canada geese. The birds, travelling at about 50mph, are sucked into both of the plane’s two CFM56-5B engines, which flame out and fail immediately, though miraculously they do not disintegrate. The animals are instantly liquefied, transformed into a thin mist of what is known to air-crash investigators as “bird slurry”.
3.27pm
Air traffic controller Patrick Harten, based at New York’s Air Traffic Control Center in Long Island, eight miles from LaGuardia, contacts Flight 1549, whose call-sign is “Cactus”, to request a routine course-correction.
Sullenberger, who has just taken over the flight from his co-pilot, who has spent the previous seconds trying and failing to restart the engines, responds.
3.28pm
Sullenberger quickly considers his options. With no thrust and perilously little altitude he decides that a turn and glide back to LaGuardia is not a viable option. “I am not sure if we can make any runway,” he tells Harten. “What’s over to our right? Anything in New Jersey? Maybe Teterboro?”
A few seconds later the controller comes with confirmation. “Cactus 1549, turn right two eight zero. You can land Runway 1 at Teterboro.” But by now Sullenberger had decided that this too was not viable. “We can’t do it.”
Harten: “O.K. Which runway would you like at Teterboro?”
Sullenberger: “We’re gonna be in the Hudson.”
Harten: “I’m sorry, say again, Cactus?”
The transcripts of our conversation also show how Patrick’s
choice of phrasing was helpful to me. Rather than telling me
what airport I had to aim for, he asked me what airport I
wanted. His words let me know that he understood that these
hard choices were mine to make, and it wasn’t going to help if
he tried to dictate a plan to me.
Chesley B. Sullenberger, Highest Duty: My Search for What
Really Matters
3.28pm
Without thrust Sullenberger begins his glide towards the Hudson. The only major vertical obstacle in his way is the George Washington Bridge, which Sullenberger clears with about 900 feet to spare.
3.30pm
Sullenberger makes his only announcement to the passengers. “Brace for impact.” Inside the cabin the flight attendants repeat the instruction. “Brace! Brace! Heads down! Stay down!”
3.31pm
With its nose raised and travelling at 150mph US Airways Flight 1549 completes an unpowered ditching in the Hudson, ironically just opposite the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, just three and a half minutes after its take-off from LaGuardia.
Sullenberger gives the evacuate command and the crew begin to remove the passengers, including one in a wheelchair, onto the plane’s wings through the four mid-cabin emergency exits as the plane slowly begins to take on water. There is no panic, and some passengers stay inside the now gently drifting airliner to hand life vests to those already on the wings. The water temperature in the river is a chilly 2C, but a few passengers, wary of an explosion, dive in and swim away from the downed aircraft.
3.35pm
The first rescue vessel, NY Waterway ferry Thomas Jefferson, commanded by Captain Vincent Lombardi, takes just four minutes to reach the plane and begin offloading passengers. Captain Sullenberger walks the entire length of the flooded aircraft twice to check that no passengers remain inside before exiting the plane. Seventy-eight people are treated for minor injuries and hypothermia.
It is only the fourth time that a commercial airliner has been intentionally landed on water. Weeks later, New York State Governor David Paterson says, “We had a Miracle on 34th Street. I believe now we have had a Miracle on the Hudson.“
Investigation
The initial National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) evaluation that the plane had lost thrust after a bird strike was confirmed by analysis of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders. On January 21, the NTSB found evidence of soft-body damage in the right engine along with organic debris including a feather. The left engine also evidenced soft body impact, with: “dents on both the spinner and inlet lip of the engine cowling. Five booster inlet guide vanes are fractured and eight outlet guide vanes are missing.” Both engines, missing large portions of their housings, were sent to the manufacturer for examination.
The NTSB used flight simulators to test the possibility that the flight could have returned safely to LaGuardia or diverted to Teterboro; only seven of the thirteen simulated returns to La Guardia succeeded, and only one of the two to Teterboro. Furthermore, the NTSB report called these simulations unrealistic: “The immediate turn made by the pilots during the simulations did not reflect or account for real-world considerations.” A further simulation, conducted with the pilot delayed by 35 seconds, crashed. In testimony before the NTSB, Sullenberger maintained that there had been no time to bring the plane to any airport, and that attempting to do so would likely have killed those onboard and more on the ground.
We need to try to do the right thing every time, to perform at
our best, because we never know which moment in our lives
we’ll be judged on.
Chesley B. Sullenberger, Highest Duty: My Search for What
Really Matters
The Board ultimately ruled that Sullenberger had made the correct decision, reasoning that the checklist for dual-engine failure is designed for higher altitudes, when pilots have more time to deal with the situation, and that while simulations showed that the plane might have just barely made it back to LaGuardia, those scenarios assumed an instant decision to do so, with no time allowed for assessing the situation.
On May 4, 2010 the NTSB issued its final report, which identified the probable cause as “the ingestion of large birds into each engine, which resulted in an almost total loss of thrust in both engines.” The final report credited the outcome to four factors: good decision-making and teamwork by the cockpit crew (including decisions to immediately turn on the APU and to ditch in the Hudson); the fact that the A320 is certified for extended overwater operation (and hence carried life vests and additional raft/slides) even though not required for that route; the performance of the flight crew during the evacuation; and the proximity of working vessels to the ditching site. Contributing factors were good visibility and a fast response from the ferry operators and emergency responders. The report also makes a range of recommendations to improve safety in such situations.
Sully: Miracle on the Hudson
Sullenberger’s memoir, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters was adapted into a feature film Sully: Miracle on the Hudson, directed by Clint Eastwood, with Tom Hanks as Sullenberger and Aaron Eckhart as co-pilot Jeff Skiles. It was released by Warner Bros. on September 9, 2016.