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Captain “Sully” had only 208 seconds to land the Airbus A320 in New York’s freezing Hudson River following a bird strike that induced the loss of thrust in both engines.
Here are the 208 seconds recorded by the black box:
(Source)
3:27 pm
The plane is at an altitude of 3,000 feet directly above The Bronx and traveling at 250mph when it encounters a flock of Canada geese. The birds are sucked into both of the plane’s engines which fail immediately.
3:27 pm
Air traffic controller Patrick Harten, based at New York’s Air Traffic Control Center in Long Island, eight miles from LaGuardia, contacts Flight 1549, whose call-sign is “Cactus”, to request a routine course-correction.
Sullenberger, who has just taken over the flight from his co-pilot, who has spent the previous seconds trying and failing to restart the engines, responds. “Ah, this is, uh, Cactus 1549, hit birds. We lost thrust in both engines. We’re turning back towards LaGuardia.” Harten confirms and contacts LaGuardia to clear both runways for an emergency landing.
