US Airways Flight 1549

Jeff Skiles continued flying for American Airlines after the 2009 incident.

It’s almost two years since US Airways Flight 1549 achieved its ‘miracle’ water landing in the Hudson River. In the time since, pilots Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger and Jeff Skiles have spoken before innumerable people to recount their experience. But last June, Skiles addressed a group that not only knows a lot about the bird strike […]

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, 59, has flown his last airline flight. The captain of US Airways Flight 1549, who landed his bird-strike stricken Airbus in the Hudson River a year ago January, has been hailed as a hero ever since. Though eligible to continue flying until age 65 (the FAA’s age-60 retirement mandate was extended to […]

In 1944, his father, Wolfgang, wrote the definitive text on seat-of-pants flying, Stick & Rudder. Now, William Langewiesche has published a book examining details of the Miracle on the Hudson ditching. In his new book, Fly By Wire: The Geese, the Glide and the “Miracle” on the Hudson, the younger Langewiesche (who is an accomplished […]

“Fly right, or don’t fly at all,” is the admonition for airline pilots from FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt. He spoke in reference to the pilots of Northwest Flight 188 who were so engrossed in their laptop computers that they overflew their destination airport by some 150 miles. Showing little sympathy for the pilots’ plight, Babbitt […]

When US Airways Flight 1549 splashed down on the Hudson River in January, Captain Chesley Sullenberger and Copilot Jeffrey Skiles became instant celebrities. They attended President Obama’s inauguration, made the rounds of television talk shows, and continue to be a huge draw as motivational speakers. But their best audience was probably the overflow crowds who […]