Miracle on the Hudson
Sully, with Tom Hanks, Aaron Eckhart, Valerie Mahaffey and Mike O’Malley. Directed by Clint Eastwood. 4.5/5
IMAGINE you have just taken off in an Airbus A320 and are only 850m in the air when there is a bang, a judder and, in the next minute or so, the pilot says, “brace for impact”.
Sully is the true story of US Airways flight 1549 from LaGuardia Airport, New York, which took off on a bitterly cold January morning with 155 passengers and crew on-board. As the plane ascended a flock of birds flew into both engines, rendering them both useless. The pilot, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (played by Tom Hanks) had to make a swift decision as to what to do to save those on-board.
The control tower at LaGuardia instructed Sully to turn and head back to LaGuardia, or attempt to land at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. But with all his experience, the veteran pilot realised going to either airport would only end in crashing the plane in heavily populated New York City.
So, with only seconds to consider what he had to do, Sully turned the plane toward the Hudson River and undertook a forced water landing. Just before the touchdown Sully turned to his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles (played by Aaron Eckhart), and asked him, “Any ideas?”
With all passengers and crew rescued, Sully becomes a media sensation, something the experienced pilot with 42 years under his belt, is unused to.
He is hailed as a hero and appears on talk shows.
However, the National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) believes Sully actually put those on-board in danger by scuttling the aircraft, and this is the object of their investigation.
Sully tells the NTSB that both engines on the plane were destroyed by the birds, but the NTSB believes that the port engine might still have been idling or sub-idling, making it possible to turn back to LaGuardia or land at Teterboro Airport. However, that engine was lost in the Hudson River, so it was impossible to be certain whether both engines actually failed.
Further, the NTSB performed computer simulations that indicate that Sully should have turned the plane around and landed safely at either of the designated airports.
If proven correct, the cause of the crash would have been attributed to pilot error, meaning Sully would lose his job, his pension and the small air safety company he had formed.
It all leads up to a dramatic showdown at the NTSB hearing.
Clint Eastwood’s masterful direction of Sully makes this a film that might well be a contender for an Oscar as he takes you through the anguish and final triumph of a man who beats the system.
It is also a heroic story, the release of which coincided with the 15th anniversary of 9/11.