(NewsNation) — Boeing has been hit with a series of issues lately, but fifteen years ago, those in New York are remembering an airline scare with a miraculous ending.
The latest scare involved a Boeing plane in Japan when pilots turned back after noticing a crack in a cockpit window. There were no reports of injuries to the 65 people on board. The plane was a different model than the one that lost a piece of the fuselage midflight earlier in the month.
As the incidents raise concerns about air safety, those in New York remember a big scare 15 years ago: “the Miracle on the Hudson” when U.S. Airways pilot Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, known as “Sully,” made an emergency landing on the river after the plane lost both engines shortly after takeoff.
Jan. 15, 2009, was the coldest day of the winter when reports came in that a plane had gone into the Hudson. Onlookers rushed to the West Side Highway to see what was happening as the huge plane floated above the waterline, heading toward the tip of Manhattan.
The plane was quickly surrounded by rescue boats, police, Coast Guard and ferries surrounding it like a bullseye, trying to get people to safety before the plane sank.
A flock of geese was responsible for bringing the plane down, knocking out both engines and causing a catastrophic double-engine failure. The plane was headed from New York’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina.
Sullenberger’s quick thinking and that of his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, meant they could get the plane out of the sky and land safely on the water.
It’s known as the most successful ditch in aviation history, and to this day, it’s difficult to believe it happened.
The flight crew helped passengers into the responding boats, with minimal injuries and no casualties among the 155 onboard.
