Exactly 10 years ago a serious incident had worldwide repercussions. A US Airways Airbus A320, had taken off from La Guardia Airport in New York and had to cancel the flight to Charlotte, North Carolina due to a collision with several Canadian geese, prompting Captain Sully to perform a movie-worthy landing (and it did), on the icy Hudson River.
US Airways Flight 1549 will that day become one of the biggest highlights on US and world TV. After all, it is not often that you see a plane landing in a river, where the 155 people on board leave without serious injuries.
After landing, the rescue vessels immediately responded to the distress calls, and rescued the 155 people on board the A320 and referred the injured to nearby hospitals. Injuries were generally few and minor, with the exception of flight attendant Doreen Welsh, who suffered a serious leg injury but was treated.
After the rescue at that time the main subject of the day was the landing on the Hudson River, the press from all over the world was reviewing the news and waiting for some note from US Airways.
And so it was done by Doug Parker, president of US Airways, who issued an official statement during a press conference confirming what happened with the A320.
Investigations
As soon as everything happened, engers and crew were medicated, investigations of the incident with the US Airways Airbus A320 (flight 1549) were initiated.
The preliminary report of the incident, published on January 16, stated that the aircraft lost power in both engines after colliding with Canadian geese. This conclusion, and the simultaneous loss of power to both engines, was confirmed by cockpit voice recordings and flight data recordings, which were retrieved from the aircraft by the NTSB, when the plane was pulled out of the river on 18 January.
According to the investigations, according to the investigators, there would be time for the A320 to return to La Guardia Airport and make a safe landing. This was a nuisance for the pilots of Flight 1549 who reported otherwise the only alternative was to land on the river.
However, with all the recordings and data from the flight, simulations were made and in them the summoned pilots managed to land at an airport. But what was not taken into was the 'human factor'.
As soon as the shock happened, the pilots were trying to find out what happened until they decided to land on the Hudson, and this reaction time is the apex of the question. Both Sully and co-pilot Jeffrey B. Skiles report this in the depositions and simulations made by the investigators, where they introduced this reaction time and it was more than clear that the decision to land in the Hudson River was the correct one.
Decorations
After the investigations, it was time to honor the pilots and flight attendants, who on that January 15, 2009, were on US Airways Flight 1549 that landed on the Hudson River.
The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators awarded the entire crew of Flight 1549 with a Master's Medal on January 22, 2009. The medal is only given for major aviation achievements at the discretion of the Masters of the Association.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg presented the Keys to the City to the flight 1549 crew, and gave the captain a copy of a book, which the captain had borrowed from a library and which was lost in the crash, entitled Just Culture: Balancing Safety and ability, by Sidney Dekker.
Crew
The great mentor of this fact was the commander was Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, 57 years old, a former fighter pilot who has been commander of civil airlines since leaving the American Air Force (USAF) in 1980.
He is also a safety expert and a glider pilot. Captain Sully's partner on US Airways Flight 1549 was co-pilot Jeffrey B. Skiles, 49, who was on his first flight in an Airbus A320 since undergoing a flight training course for this type of aircraft. The rest of the crew consisted of flight attendants Donna Dent, Doreen Welsh and Sheila Dail.
Media
Some documentaries were produced about this fact, the Discovery Channel aired a documentary entitled Hudson Plane Crash – What Really Happened (Plane Crash on the Hudson - What Really Happened) for the first time.
The hour-long TV documentary examined the circumstances surrounding the crash and rescue; the film featured computer-generated animations and new interviews with engers, crew, witnesses, people directly involved in the rescue and aviation safety experts.
National Geographic (Nat Geo) aired a documentary from the Mayday Air Disasters series “Hudson River Runway” (Hudson River Runway) where the documentary showed from takeoff to water landing.
The case of US Airways Flight 1549 also hit the big screen. The film Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, was released in 2016 and playing in theaters around the world. The film portrayed all the scenes before, during and after the outcome of this landing on the Hudson River.
