US Airways Flight 1549

US Airways Flight 1549 (also known as the Miracle on the Hudson) was a flight from LaGuardia Airport in New York to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, and then to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The Airbus A320-214 operating the flight hit a flock of Canadian geese and that led to dual-engine failure shortly after departing LaGuardia Airport. Luckily, the crew successfully ditched the plane in the Hudson River six minutes after takeoff. All 155 people onboard survived the crash.

Aircraft
The Airbus A320-214 operating Flight 1549, registered N106US, made its first flight on 15 June 1999 and was delivered to US Airways in the same year. At the time of the accident the airframe had accumulated a total of 25241 hours and 16298 cycles (takeoffs and landings). The aircraft was powered by two CFM56-5B4 engines, the left one having seen 19182 hours of service and the right engine having accumulated 26466 hours at the time of the accident.

The aircraft was damaged beyond repair as a result of the accident and has since been on display at the Carolinas Aviation Museum.

Passengers and crew
The captain and pilot-in-command was 57-year-old Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III, 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 Bruce Skiles, 49, had accrued 20,727 career flight hours with 37 in an A320, but this was his first A320 assignment as pilot flying.

Three cabin crew members, Donna Dent, Doreen Welsh and Sheila Dail were on board, as well as 150 passengers.

Accident
Flight 1549 was cleared for takeoff to the northeast from LaGuardia's Runway 4 at 3:24:56 pm Eastern Standard Time (20:24:56 UTC). With Skiles in control, the crew made its first report after becoming airborne at 3:25:51 as being at 700 feet (210 m) and climbing. The weather at 2:51 p.m. gave 10 miles (16 km) visibility with broken clouds at 3,700 feet (1,100 m), wind 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) from 290°; an hour later it was few clouds at 4,200 feet (1,300 m), wind 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) from 310°. At 3:26:37 Sullenberger mentioned to Skiles that they had a good view of the Hudson.

At 3:27:10, the flight crew noticed what appeared to be "many large birds, a dozen or more", flying in a V-formation. At 3:27:11, the plane struck a flock of what would later be identified as Canada geese at an altitude of 2,818 feet (859 m) about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) north-northwest of LaGuardia. The pilots' view was filled with the large birds; passengers and crew heard very loud bangs and saw flames from the engines, followed by silence and an odor of burning birds. Sullenberger later described the bird strike as comparable to "being pelted by heavy rain or hail" and that the thuds resulting from the impact "came in rapid succession, almost simultaneously but a fraction of a fraction of a second apart".

Realizing that both engines had shut down, Sullenberger took control of the aircraft while Skiles worked the checklist for engine restart. The aircraft slowed but continued to climb for a further 19 seconds, reaching about 3,060 feet (930 m) at an airspeed of about 185 knots (343 km/h; 213 mph), then began a glide descent, accelerating to 210 knots (390 km/h; 240 mph) at 3:28:10 as it descended through 1,650 feet (500 m).

At 3:27:33, Sullenberger radioed a mayday call to New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON): "... this is Cactus 1539 [sic –correct call sign was Cactus 1549], hit birds. We've lost thrust on both engines. We're turning back towards LaGuardia". Air traffic controller Patrick Harten told LaGuardia's tower to hold all departures, and directed Sullenberger back to Runway 13, to which Sullenberger responded "unable".

Sullenberger asked controllers for landing options in New Jersey, mentioning Teterboro Airport. Permission was given for Teterboro's Runway 1. Sullenberger initially responded "Yes", but then, "We can't do it… We're gonna be in the Hudson". The aircraft passed less than 900 feet (270 m) above the George Washington Bridge. "Brace for impact," Sullenberger commanded over the cabin address system, and the flight attendants relayed the command to passengers. Meanwhile, air traffic controllers asked the Coast Guard to caution vessels in the Hudson and ask them to prepare to assist with rescue.

About ninety seconds later, at 3:31 pm, the plane made an unpowered ditching, descending southwards at about 125 knots (140 mph; 230 km/h) into the middle of the North River section of the Hudson tidal estuary on the New York side of the state line, roughly opposite West 50th Street (near the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum) in Manhattan and Port Imperial in Weehawken, New Jersey. Flight attendants compared the ditching to a "hard landing" with "one impact, no bounce, then a gradual deceleration." The tide then began to take the plane south.

Sullenberger opened the cockpit door and gave the order to evacuate. The crew began evacuating the passengers through the four overwing window exits and into an inflatable slide/raft deployed from the front right passenger door (the front left slide failed to operate, so the manual inflation handle was pulled). A panicked passenger opened a rear door, which a flight attendant was unable to reseal. Water was also entering through a hole in the fuselage and through cargo doors that had come open, so as the water rose the attendant urged passengers to move forward by climbing over seats. One passenger was in a wheelchair. Finally, Sullenberger walked the cabin twice to confirm it was empty. The air and water temperatures were about 19 °F (−7 °C) and 41 °F (5 °C) respectively. Some evacuees waited for rescue knee-deep in water on the partially submerged slides, some wearing life-vests. Others stood on the wings or, fearing an explosion, swam away from the plane. One passenger, after helping with the evacuation, found the wing so crowded that he jumped into the river and swam to a boat.

Aftermath
Among the people on board there were 95 minor injuries and 5 serious, including a deep laceration in flight attendant Doreen Welsh's leg. Seventy-eight people were treated, mostly for minor injuries and hypothermia. Twenty-four passengers and two rescuers were treated at hospitals, with two passengers kept overnight. One passenger now wears glasses because of eye damage from jet fuel. No pets were being carried on the flight.

Each passenger later received a letter of apology, $5,000 in compensation for lost baggage (and $5,000 more if they could demonstrate larger losses), and refund of the ticket price. In May 2009, they received any belongings that had been recovered. In addition, they reported offers of $10,000 each in return for agreeing not to sue US Airways.

Many passengers and rescuers later experienced post-traumatic stress symptoms such as sleeplessness, flashbacks, and panic attacks. Some began an email support group. Patrick Harten, the air traffic controller who had worked the flight, said that "the hardest, most traumatic part of the entire event was when it was over", and that he was "gripped by raw moments of shock and grief".

In an effort to prevent similar accidents, officials captured and gassed 1,235 Canada geese at 17 locations across New York City in mid-2009 and coated 1,739 goose eggs with oil to smother the developing goslings. To date (2017) 70,000 birds have been intentionally slaughtered in NYC as a result of the Hudson ditching.

Trivia

 * There is a movie called "Sully" (2016) based on the incident