The weather is cold (-6 ° C) but wonderfully clear, this January 15, 2009, at LaGuardia Airport, in New York. In the cockpit of the Airbus A320 of US Airways flight 1549, which is to fly to the city of Charlotte, in North Carolina, Captain Chesley Sullenberger, known as “Sully”, and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles. Relaxed, the two unblemished career men complete routine procedures. They are in perfect health, very experienced, and do not drink, as the surveys will establish later.
Smiling brown, mustachioed and athletic, Skiles, 49, has 15,600 flight hours, but only 37 on the A320. Sully, 57, white hair and mustache, cheerful face, piloted his first plane at 16. He took everything to the skies, from simple gliders to the behemoths of civil aviation, including US Air Force Phantom military aircraft, where he served in the 1970s.
One of his closest colleagues spoke of him as follows: “An exceptionally intelligent, polite and professional man. Sully had 19,600 hours of flight time that day, including 4,700 on the A320. But it is the following minutes which will inscribe him in eternity.
“The two reactors fail us”
At 3:25 p.m., the plane took off on runway 4 of the airport, located in a highly urbanized area of the Queens district, east of Manhattan. Two minutes later, the Airbus was 2,800 feet (just over 850 meters): the dreaded red zone for pilots, where a third of air accidents occur. When suddenly shadows cross the cockpit. “Birds * …” says Sully.
It is a flock of Canada geese, a migratory species whose specimens can weigh more than 6 kilos. Dull shocks are heard in the cabin when the geese hit the cabin, and at least two are sucked in by each of the engines. The plane suddenly lost speed.
” Oh ! Oh ! “Says the co-pilot. “The two let us go,” says Sully. A handful of seconds later, he disconnected the autopilot and took control. He warns, laconic, of the control tower. Any hesitation can now cause a catastrophe. The alarms are howling. Sully orders his co-pilot to consult the “Quick Reference Handbook”, a small emergency manual, and sounds the alert on the radio: “Mayday, mayday, mayday. We have struck birds, we no longer have thrust on either of the two reactors. We return to LaGuardia. The control tower tells him to veer to his left at 220 degrees, which he does, in the axis of the Hudson River.
At 3:27 p.m., Sully disconnected the autopilot and took control. Any hesitation can now cause a catastrophe. (Titwane for Le Parisien Week-End)
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With staggering calm, the duo then attempted the reactor restart procedure detailed in the famous manual. Skiles reads: “If there is fuel left, engine, select ignition. “Sully performs the maneuver:” Ignition. “Skiles:” Slow push, confirmation. “Sully:” Slow down. “Four seconds later, Skiles scrutinizes the instruments:” We need an optimal speed, 300 knots. We don’t have that. “Sully:” We don’t have it. The plane is in distress.
The LaGuardia control tower offers a landing on runway 13. Sully responds: “We are incapable of it. We could end up in the Hudson. The commander is obsessed with a risk: if he returns to LaGuardia, he will have to fly over Manhattan, where he risks causing the apocalypse by crashing right next to the theater of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The aircraft headed for runway 13 but a traffic alarm sounded. “Track 4 available”, relaunch control. “I’m not sure we can reach any trail. Uh, what do we have on our right, in New Jersey … Maybe Teterboro? Said Sully. It is a small airport located about twenty kilometers from Manhattan.
A single cry in a silence of terror
But the plane seriously failed, lost altitude and a new alarm sounded, the GPWS (which signals the proximity of the ground). At 3:29 p.m., for the first time, Sully turned on the on-board radio and addressed the passengers. “Here the commander. Prepare for impact. The 150 passengers, paralyzed since takeoff, then understand that they are on the verge of death. As the crew yells at them to bend down, they get into position, in tears, in prayers, trembling or in silence.
In the 2D seat, John Howell, an accountant, thinks of his brother, a firefighter who died in the Word Trade Center on September 11, 2001. “Parents will be mad with grief,” he thinks. Laura Zych and Ben Bostich, two strangers who exchanged glances in the boarding queue, and are sitting three seats apart, look at each other again. They will form a couple after their miraculous survival. Lori Lightner oddly thinks of the employees she fires in the supermarkets she runs. She will quit her job for the Red Cross after the accident. Stephanie King, a lawyer who is to be married soon, bursts into tears with her eyes closed, thinking of the man she loves.
At 3:29 p.m., the crew yelled at the passengers to lean over to prepare for the impact. (Titwane for Le Parisien Week-End)
The last reactor power indicators go out. When air traffic control asked him which runway he chose in Teterboro, Sully replied: “We can’t do it. We’re going to end up in the Hudson. The plane descends towards the river, a terrifying maneuver where the speed must be reduced but not too much, failing to see the plane lose its lift and sink like a common pebble in the dark waters.
“Get out the shutters, get out the shutters!” Sully orders. Skiles: “Shutters out. 250 feet. The plane is less than 80 meters from the water. Skiles: “Two components, do you want more? The plane descends a few dozen meters from the water. Sully: “No. Two, it’s good … Do you have an idea? “Skiles:” Actually … No. “
At 3.30 pm, five minutes after takeoff, Sully announces: “We are going to prepare. There is curiously only one passenger cry, in a silence of terror. A shock when the tail hits the water first, the plane tips over to the left, turns … and comes to a stop. The aircraft was descending at 120 knots, approximately 220 km / hour, just enough not to break.
The plane is intact, it floats. Only four passengers and one crew member were slightly injured. Luckily, when this equipment was not required on this flight, the six doors of the aircraft are equipped with inflatable rafts that inflate automatically. The water rises quickly on the plane when the doors open. The passengers at the bottom of the aircraft, who see the water rising to their thorax, cry. A hysterical queue forms near each exit.
Sully and Skiles help the passengers get out. They note that some do not wear life jackets. So they go get them under the seats and pass them. When everyone seems to have alighted, the two pilots survey the plane one last time. They take their things in the cockpit. Then quietly exit from the front. Boats are already flocking from New York. The Airbus sinks quickly.
“I only did my job”
In the months that follow, we will look for lice in the head of Sully, who will be accused of not having returned to LaGuardia or Teterboro, which would have saved a plane to 100 million dollars. Simulations will indeed seem at first to demonstrate that it was possible … provided you make an immediate U-turn after meeting the birds. The two men overturned this infamous and ridiculous accusation.
The water rises quickly on the plane when the doors open. Luckily, the aircraft is equipped with inflatable rafts that inflate automatically. (Titwane for Le Parisien Week-End)
They will then be celebrated worldwide. Clint Eastwood will tell their story in “Sully”, a movie released in 2016, with Tom Hanks in the title role. Sully has always refused to see himself as a hero: “I only did my job. His advice? “Leave your ego at the door and tell yourself we’re going to do something useful.” “
Retired, he became a consultant, has written several books. In one of them, “Making a Difference” (He made the difference, published in 2012), he witnesses men and women who have acted courageously in various situations. According to him, “there are a lot of people who do this kind of thing in everyday life”.
* The pilot dialogues have been translated from English since the official transcription of the recording kept on each aircraft.
This story is nourished by the report of the NTSB (official American investigation authority for air accidents), testimonies of survivors published in New York newspapers and the British daily newspaper. « The Guardian » and an interview with Sully given to the CNN TV channel. The reconstruction was carried out with the help of Alexandre Salomé, captain, and Paul Dalmasso, lawyer and amateur pilot.
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