When US Airways Flight 1549 crash landed in New York’s Hudson River on a freezingly cold January morning in 2009, the world thought the worst. A freak accident involving a flock of birds, shortly after taking off at LaGuardia Airport, caused both of the Airbus A320’s engines to fail and put the lives of the 155 people on board in peril.
The fact that no one died remains an absolute credit to the skills of the pilots who were able to glide the engineless plane to a controlled crash-landing in the river. It was an incident that was dubbed the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’.
There is little surprise, then, that this weekend’s most anticipated cinema release is Sully, the tale of Flight 1549’s pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger – played by Tom Hanks.
Directed by the masterful storyteller that is Clint Eastwood, the film not only documents the story of Sullenberger – who became a national hero after saving all the crew and passengers – during that fateful day, but also the ensuing investigation that threatened to destroy his career and reputation.
