After Sully, another (small) miracle on the Hudson

In what New Yorkers are calling “another miracle on the Hudson,” two people survived a small plane crash into the icy waters of the Hudson River. In the “original miracle”, Commander “Sully” Sullenberger managed to land his Airbus A320 in the river and save the 155 passengers.

Two survivors were rescued from a plane that crashed Tuesday night into the icy waters of the Hudson River. The Cessna 172 carried only the pilot and one passenger, who both only had injuries considered “minor”.

According to , the small aircraft, which was destined for New York Stewart International Airport in Orange County, crashed into the Hudson about 100 kilometers north of New York City, less than 30 kilometers from its destination.

According to a statement from the local Fire Department, firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene at 8:04 p.m., but initially they were unable to locate the aircraft in the river. The air temperature had dropped below zero at the time of the accident, hovering around minus 4 degrees Celsius.

After several minutes of searchingrescue teams located the plane near Newburgh.

Both the pilot and his only passenger freed themselves from the wreckage and they managed swim to the shore. Once on land, both were treated on site by medical services before being urgently transported to the hospital, and are expected to recover completely.

A cause of the accident remains unknown. According to the local TV station, the FAA, the North American aviation regulator, opened an investigation into the incident.

“It’s another miracle on the Hudson“, on the social network X the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochulwho said she was “grateful to the elements of the emergency services who conducted the rescue operation”.

“Thank God, both pilot and passenger of a single-engine plane that made an emergency landing on the ice near Newburgh were found with only minor injuries,” the governor added.

A (small) miracle, 17 years later.

“Brace for Impact”: Sully’s Miracle

The exciting “Miracle not Hudson” original occurred on January 15, 2009, when US Airways Flight 1549 was forced to ground moor the Hudson River after suffering a failure of both engines. Emergency ditching is a rare maneuver used by pilots when reaching land becomes impossible.

The aircraft had been hit by a flock of geese from Canada shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York, which paralyzed its engines.

The Airbus A320 was destined for Charlotte, North Carolina, and Seattle, Washington state, but ended up landing in the Hudson River less than four minutes after the collision with the birds.

As the plane approached the water, passed less than 270 meters above the George Washington Bridge. According to NTSB data, the aircraft hit the river at a speed of around 225 km/h.

All 155 passengers on the aircraft survivedalthough 100 people on board were injured. Two New York Waterway ferries, along with more than a dozen private vessels, went to the scene to rescue passengers.

The accident, which fortunately was not fatal to anyone, was brought to the big screen in 2016 by Clint Eastwoodwho directed ““. Tom Hanks played the famous aircraft commander, Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, and Aaron Eckhart played his co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles.

After an investigation into the causes of the accident, brilliantly portrayed in the film, both Sully and Skiles were acclaimed for their cold blood and quick reaction faced with adverse and unexpected situations, and considered responsible for avoiding a tragedy that could have taken the life to all passengers and crew.

Below, a summary of the most striking scenes from Eastwood’s film: