US Airways Flight 1549

About

US Airways Flight 1549 was a regularly scheduled US Airways domestic flight from New York City's LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte and Seattle, that ditched onto the Hudson River shortly after takeoff on January 15, 2009, due to a double engine failure caused by a bird strike. The Airbus A320 operating the flight, registered N106US, struck a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, resulting in a dual engine failure. Given their position in relation to the available airports and their low altitude, pilots Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to glide the aircraft into a water landing on the Hudson River near Midtown Manhattan, doing so without significant damage to the aircraft. All 155 people on board survived and were rescued by nearby boats, although 100 people were injured, 5 seriously. The time from the bird strike to the ditching was less than four minutes.

The then-governor of New York State, David Paterson, called the incident a "Miracle on the Hudson" and a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official described it as "the most successful ditching in aviation history". Flight simulations showed that the aircraft could have returned to LaGuardia, had it turned toward the airport immediately after the bird strike. The NTSB however, found that the scenario did not account for real-world considerations, and affirmed ditching as providing the highest probability of survival, given the circumstances. The pilots and flight attendants were awarded the Master's Medal of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in recognition of their "heroic and unique aviation achievement".