Original subtitles

After takeoff checklist complete.

NARRATOR: US Airways Flight 1549 has just left

New York's LaGuardia Airport.

Birds.

JEFFREY SKILES: And that fast, we were just on top of them.

My aircraft.

Your aircraft.

NARRATOR: Both of the plane's engines have stopped working.

Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Cactus 1549.

NARRATOR: The plane is falling from the sky.

There are only a few seconds to decide what to do.

PATRICK HARTEN: If we can get it for you,

you want to try and land on runway 13.

We're unable.

NARRATOR: 155 lives depend on the pilots

making the right call.

Get your heads down and stay down.

PATRICK HARTEN: Hey, Cactus 1549, you

can land runway 1 at Teterboro.

Can't do it.

NARRATOR: With a bad option on the right

and a worse one on the left, the crew

decides to put their Airbus on the runway that's dead ahead.

We're going to be in the Hudson.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT (ON PA): Ladies and gentlemen

we are starting our approach.

PILOT: We lost both engines.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT (ON PA): Put the mask over your nose.

Emergency

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: Mayday, mayday.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Brace for impact!

MAN 1: I think I lost them.

MAN 2: He's gonna crash!

NARRATOR: New York's LaGuardia Airport, mid-afternoon.

Please take a moment to listen to this important information.

NARRATOR: US Airways Flight 1549 is

a short hop from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina.

At least it will be a little warmer in Charlotte.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT (ON PA): Your seat cushion

serves as a flotation device.

NARRATOR: Together in the cockpit today

our Captain Chesley Sullenberger, 57--

Clean to push.

NARRATOR: --and first officer Jeffrey Skiles, 49.

JEFFREY SKILES: We were late because the weather

was bad earlier.

But by this point, the weather cleared off for our departure.

And it was just puffy clouds.

PATRICK HARTEN (ON RADIO): 28, brakes released.

Spark 28 for Cactus 1549.

NARRATOR: 150 passengers are on board

the European-made Airbus A320.

Businessman Clay Presley is on his way home to Charlotte.

I arrived at the airport at LaGuardia.

It was very cold.

It had been snowing a little bit that day.

And we had a storm coming in, so we wanted

to make sure we made that flight and weren't hung up or delayed

on some later flights.

NARRATOR: The crew flew in an hour earlier

from Charlotte with Sullenberger at the controls.

Your brakes, your aircraft.

NARRATOR: First Officer Skiles will be flying

the plane back to Charlotte.

My aircraft.

NARRATOR: It's a common sharing of piloting duties.

PATRICK HARTEN (ON RADIO): Cactus 1549, runway 4,

clear for takeoff.

Cactus 1549, clear for takeoff.

NARRATOR: This trip marks the final leg

of a four-day sequence of flights for both men.

We made our standard callouts.

It was just a normal takeoff, normal procedures on the climb

out.

There was absolutely nothing at all

to indicate that this would be any different than any other

takeoff in my entire career.

NARRATOR: But by the end of the day,

they'll be the most famous crew on the planet.

Gear up please.

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: Gear up.

NARRATOR: Patrick Harten is one of the controllers handling

traffic out of LaGuardia today.

He has one of the most stressful jobs in the world.

PATRICK HARTEN: When I sit down in front of a radar,

I'm responsible for every person on every airplane

under my control.

And I take that responsibility very seriously.

Cactus 1549, New York departure, radar contact.

Climb and maintain 1 5,000.

NARRATOR: The flight will climb Northeast out of LaGuardia

and then begin a slow turn south toward Charlotte.

It was just a normal departure, you know?

It was just another flight that I've handled a million times.

NARRATOR: Riding the thrust of two

General Electric engines, the aircraft powers into the sky.

Cactus 1549, 700, climbing 5,000.

What a view of the Hudson today.

JEFFREY SKILES: Yeah.

After takeoff checklist complete.

NARRATOR: Flight 1549 is traveling

at almost 250 miles per hour.

It's been in the air for just a minute and a half.

I caught something out of the corner of my eye.

And slightly to our right but still ahead of

us was a line of birds.

Birds.

And they were very very close, too close

for us to maneuver around.

Whoa!

And that fast, we were just on top of them.

You can just feel the power of the plane going forward.

And then all of a sudden, there was this gigantic boom.

It seemed like it stopped in midair,

like you hit a brick wall.

Oh, my God, the engine's on fire!

CLAY PRESLEY: And then all of a sudden,

somebody said, the left engine is on fire.

Uh-oh.

Before we could even assess the situation--

We got one roll, both of them rolling back.

--both engines roll back to idle.

Ignition start.

NARRATOR: Just 13 seconds after their problems begin,

Sullenberger takes control of a struggling plane.

My aircraft.

Your aircraft.

Get the QRH, loss of thrust in both engines.

NARRATOR: The QRH, or Quick Reference Handbook,

is a step-by-step guide to dealing with emergencies.

Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Cactus 1549.

Hit birds, we've lost thrust in both engines.

We're turning back towards LaGuardia.

PATRICK HARTEN: When a pilot says mayday or declares

an emergency, now you go from a focus state

to a hyperfocus state.

You just focus in on the emergency

itself and figure out the solution to the problem.

OK, you need to return to LaGuardia.

Turn left, heading 2, 2, 0.

2, 2, 0.

All of a sudden, there was a smell

that came through the cabin.

Something's burning.

If fuel remaining, engine mode selector ignition.

What I'm thinking, though, at this point is that, you know,

we're just going to have to restart an engine.

Thrust levers.

Confirm idle.

Idle.

The procedure is to try to restart the engines.

And I always had faith we could do that.

Airspeed optimum relay, 300 knots.

We don't have that.

We don't.

OK, Cactus 1549, if we can get it for you,

you want to try and land on runway 13.

We're unable.

PATRICK HARTEN: The conversations

with Captain Sullenberger were very short

and to the point, which was very appropriate for the emergency.

There was a lot going on and wasn't much time to handle it.

When Captain Sullenberger simply said, unable, I--

it didn't bother me.

I mean, he had his hands full flying the airplane,

and I understood that.

So my job is just to move on to the next option.

All right, Cactus 1549, it's going

to be traffic for runway 31.

Unable.

Harten still wants the jet to return to LaGuardia.

But Flight 1549 is now just 1,400 feet above the ground.

Cactus 1549, runway 4 is available.

If you want to make left, traffic runway 4.

I'm not sure we can make any runway.

What's to our right, anything in New Jersey, Teterboro?

OK, yeah, uh, off to your right side

is Teterboro Airport.

You want to try to go to Teterboro?

NARRATOR: Teterboro is a small airport on the New Jersey

side of the Hudson River.

But it's several miles away.

And without their engines, Flight 1549 is dropping fast.

PATRICK HARTEN (ON RADIO): You want to try to go to Teterboro?

Yes.

JEFFREY SKILES: When the air traffic

controller pointed out Teterboro, I looked at it,

and I stopped.

And I was kind of concerned that he was

actually going to try for it.

I didn't think we could make it.

So you're sitting there very quietly.

People are anxiously waiting for information.

And they wanted reassurance that things were going to be OK.

You could hear the microphone come on.

This is the captain.

CLAY PRESLEY: We're hoping he was going to say,

I've got this under control.

We're going to be OK.

We're going to make it.

We're going to turn around and go back and land.

That's what you were hoping to hear.

Brace for impact.

What does he mean brace for Impact?

And then all of a sudden it registered.

I think he's say we're going to crash.

Get your heads down and stay down!

CLAY PRESLEY: I had no idea about how to brace for impact.

Everybody's looking around.

Brace for Impact?

What do you mean brace for impact?

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Stay down!

CLAY PRESLEY: How do you brace?

Go ahead, try number 1.

I put it back on.

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: OK, put it back on.

Put it back on.

NARRATOR: While the crew struggles

to fly their stricken plane--

No relay.

NARRATOR: Patrick Harten is still

trying to find them an airport.

PATRICK HARTEN: I actually worked Teeterboro Airport

for about three years, so I was very familiar with the airport.

Hey, Cactus 1549, you can land runway 1 at Teterboro.

Can't do it.

OK, which runway would you like at Teeterboro.

We're going to be in the Hudson.

I'm sorry, say again, Cactus?

I could hear them, but my mind really didn't

want to comprehend those words.

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER (ON RADIO): We're gonna be in the Hudson.

That was a death sentence for him.

And I didn't want to accept the fact that it was over

and there were no more options left.

I don't think we're going back to LaGuardia.

I just emailed my wife and just said, I love you.

And I didn't say anything else because I really

did not want her to worry.

OK.

Let's go.

Put the flaps out.

And I thought to myself, great, the Hudson

River was our best opportunity.

It was really the only thing in sight

where we could land this airplane.

NARRATOR: Passengers throughout the plane

watch the Hudson rise to meet them and begin making

preparations of their own.

CLAY PRESLEY: So I started thinking about,

if we're going to crash, I know I need to figure

out where the exit rows are.

If the water comes in, you need to be able to hold your breath

long enough to get to those four or five rows

and get the doors open if you can.

Go flaps out, 250 feet in the air.

We're not going to be able to get an engine started.

So I started calling out air speeds and altitudes--

170 knots--

--to give him a situational awareness of what was going on.

Got flaps two.

You want more?

No, let's stay at two.

Got any ideas?

Actually, not.

I was so focused on what we were doing,

and I always thought it would work out.

NARRATOR: Below 300 feet, Patrick Harten's radar

can't see the plane.

Flight 1549 disappears.

PATRICK HARTEN: When the aircraft disappeared off

my radar, I just assumed that there weren't

going to be any survivors.

NARRATOR: In the cabin, the passengers

prepare for the inevitable.

All the passengers really started

kind of pulling together.

And somebody yelled out as we were going down--

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Get down!

MAN 1: Be ready at the doors.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Stay down!

CLAY PRESLEY: The folks at the door says, we're ready.

MAN 2: We're ready.

And I was just scared to death.

We're going to brace.

It looked like the airplane was going right for the bottom

of the Hudson River.

All we saw was water cascading over the windshield.

It was like a tornado.

Pieces of the plane were being torn apart.

Some people were thrown around pretty good.

PATRICK HARTEN: Then the airplane popped up,

and it was just sort of gently rocking in the waves.

CLAY PRESLEY: We all just sat there.

We were all in shock.

And we were we were waiting for what's next.

NARRATOR: US Airways Flight 1549 was in the air for just

five minutes and 8 seconds.

Having made a remarkable landing,

the passengers and crew now face a new danger.

The plane is leaking.

The ice cold water of the Hudson is pouring into the cabin.

difficult aviation feat.

But they still have more work to do.

Captain Sullenberger heads for the cabin,

while first officer Skiles shuts down the plane.

JEFFREY SKILES: I stayed behind and did

the evacuation checklist.

And so it was probably about 45 seconds

before I actually went back myself

in the cabin after we landed.

NARRATOR: In an instant, the $75 million

plane has become an unlikely boat

floating down the Hudson River.

It's now filling with freezing water.

That water was cold.

It was very cold, so your feet are freezing.

People came to their senses, and they said, get the doors open,

get the doors open.

NARRATOR: At air traffic control,

Patrick Harten has no idea the plane even made it down safely.

PATRICK HARTEN: I didn't think anyone could survive

a water landing like that.

They got me off position because I was obviously in no condition

to work traffic anymore.

NARRATOR: Harten has led to his union office.

Despite his ordeal, protocol demands he

recount his version of events.

PATRICK HARTEN: I really didn't want to speak to anyone.

I just wanted to kind of hide under a rock.

I needed my wife to know what had happened.

But I knew I couldn't talk to her because I was

pretty much in a fragile state, and I

didn't want to break down.

So I sent her a simple text message.

I said, had a crash.

I'm not OK.

Can't talk now.

NARRATOR: Passengers nearest the exits

opened the doors quickly, while Sullenberger and the cabin crew

began managing evacuation.

CLAY PRESLEY: I just jumped up very quickly

and started making my way to the emergency door.

And so I work my way out onto the wing, just a few

steps to start with.

I started noticing that people around me

had their flotation devices.

They'd pulled up their seat bottoms,

or they had a life jacket that they had taken.

I had nothing with me.

NARRATOR: Skiles heads back to help

the crew in the cabin get passengers out

of the sinking plane.

He knows there's not much time.

And one of the flight attendants has been injured.

JEFFREY SKILES: I went back to about mid-cabin.

And Sully and I and two young men

were getting seat cushions and life vests,

which are underneath the seats.

And we're passing them out.

CLAY PRESLEY: And I'm looking around trying

to assess the situation.

Is the plane going to blow up?

What's the next step?

There were actually probably six or eight people

that went into the water.

And they were shivering, and they were cold.

Just started pulling them back up onto the wing.

NARRATOR: At the back of the plane,

water continues pouring in.

Passengers are directed to move forward to escape.

FLIGHT ATTENDANT: Go over the seats if you have to.

NARRATOR: This unwieldy boat won't be floating much longer.

We're actually in the water, you know, up to our knees.

And it was just absolutely freezing cold.

Every part of your body that was in that water

just ached to the bone.

Go forward!

Is there anybody here?

We were very confident there was nobody left on the airplane.

But what was going on on the wings, you know,

we just had no idea.

NARRATOR: Skiles and Sullenberger are

the last ones out of the plane.

I just saw the big splash when the plane

just bounced over the water.

A small commercial airline crashed into the water.

They've been in the water more than 10 minutes already.

NARRATOR: LaGuardia Airport has sent out an alert to New

York's emergency services.

In the middle of the Hudson, 155 frozen people hope

that help will arrive in time.

I saw the first ferry.

And I could see the wheelhouse.

I felt like, OK, we're really going to be OK.

There was a sigh of relief.

NARRATOR: First on the scene are passenger

ferries that had been shuttling people across the Hudson.

They were eventually joined by the Coast

Guard and fire department.

CLAY PRESLEY: The atmosphere on the ferry

was still one of concern because we didn't know

whether all the passengers got off the plane at that point

in time.

I was sitting in the union office

preparing to make my statement.

Where do I start?

And that's when one of my friends

popped their head into the office, said, hey, Patty,

it looks like everyone made it.

And I was like, really?

That was incredible news.

I mean, I was still traumatized by the event itself.

But the fact that everyone made it was just--

it was like the weight of the world

was lifted off my shoulders.

NARRATOR: The rescue is broadcast

live across the United States.

The entire nation looks on as every single passenger

and the entire crew of Flight 1549 is brought to safety.

It's cold!

Are you OK?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: Like so many others around the world,

investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board

are riveted to the pictures.

Hey, you got to see this.

ROBERT BENZON: We learned a little bit about the accident,

of course, before we launched.

The TV channels were showing the aircraft

in the river and everything.

NARRATOR: All agree that the landing is extraordinary.

I think it's a miracle.

And I'm very blessed to have walked away.

I reached over to Captain Sully and just said,

I just want you to know you saved my life

and everyone's lives here.

In my mind, we were dead.

And every one of us came out of that alive.

It's a miracle.

NARRATOR: By evening, the plane is

almost completely underwater.

The current is pushing it towards the edge of the river.

NTSB investigator Harald Reichel arrives on the scene.

The water was dark, of course.

We just saw the tail and most of the fuselage.

And one of the wings was underneath the water.

ROBERT BENZON: We knew it was going to be quite

difficult to get it, A, out of the water,

and then B, to a place where we could

examine the components of the airplane

in a more controlled manner.

NARRATOR: For investigators, it's an unusual situation.

Normally, their main task is to uncover the cause of a crash.

With Flight 1549, the cause seems obvious.

Birds.

NARRATOR: The original mayday call was clear.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

This is Cactus 1549.

Hit birds, we've lost thrust in both engines.

We're turning back towards LaGuardia.

PATRICK HARTEN: OK, you need to come back to LaGuardia.

NARRATOR: The crew reported that they hit several birds shortly

after takeoff.

I think everybody realized that a bird

strike had occurred.

What people didn't know was what kind of birds brought

the aircraft down, whether it might have been a combination

of a bird strike plus something else,

whether the crew acted and flew the aircraft

as they should have.

My aircraft.

Your aircraft.

Get the QRH.

The US Airways pilot made an incredibly skillful emergency

landing in the Hudson River.

NARRATOR: Investigators want to interview both pilots.

But their sudden fame makes them hard to get to.

It became a little bit more difficult than usual to,

A, locate the flight crew, and then, B, to talk to them.

They were instant heroes.

JEFFREY SKILES: Nothing in life can

prepare one for the media frenzy of a situation,

you know, like this.

NARRATOR: And it's not just the pilots' newfound celebrity

that's an obstacle for investigators

like Katherine Wilson.

One of the most challenging things in this case

was nobody wanted to sully Sully.

You know, he was a hero in this case.

And we were the ones who was potentially going to pick apart

what he did and try to find out what he did

and whether it was right or not.

NARRATOR: To prove that birds caused the crash,

authorities need to get the plane out of the water.

But a vital piece is missing.

ROBERT BENZON: We had been told earlier that both engines were

still attached to the aircraft.

That turned out not to be true.

So that became a major goal right off the bat

was to figure out where that second engine was.

We didn't know exactly where it was.

Let's focus on this area.

But we had films of the aircraft actually touching down,

and we could cross-reference different things.

We used some side-scanning sonar that gave us a very

clear picture of the bottom.

HARALD REICHEL: It wasn't that easy to do because the Hudson

River has a current.

And the current changes throughout the day.

So it took three days, ultimately, to find the engine.

NARRATOR: Within days, the recovered engine and the rest

of the aircraft are moved to a warehouse in New Jersey

so investigators can study the wreckage more carefully.

We certainly couldn't do it out there at the edge

of the Hudson River.

And you can imagine how interesting it was to take

an airplane, 150 or 200 feet long, through a very, very

populated area of New Jersey.

NARRATOR: As the plane is being moved,

investigators work with the voice and data recorders--

OK, let's hear it.

NARRATOR: --which were in the most

damaged part of the plane--

the tail.

ROBERT BENZON: The cockpit voice recorder

and the flight data recorder were

in virtually pristine shape.

The aircraft had sustained quite a bit of damage

in the rear end.

But the recorders themselves survived very well.

PATRICK HARTEN (ON RECORDING): --climb and maintain 1 5,000.

We were really lucky all of the data

was able to be downloaded normally.

Whoa.

We got one roll, both of them rolling back.

NARRATOR: Listening to the CVR provides

vital insight into how the crew responded to the emergency.

KATHERINE WILSON: In this case, both Captain

Sullenberger and First Officer Skiles

acted extremely professionally.

Ignition start.

KATHERINE WILSON: Each member had their own roles

and responsibilities.

They stayed with those roles and responsibilities

throughout the accident flight, and communicated

only when necessary.

Put the flaps up.

NARRATOR: On Flight 1549--

My aircraft.

Your aircraft.

NARRATOR: --it took just seconds for the crew

to each assume their individual responsibilities.

Part of the reason they handled the emergency so well

was that Jeffrey Skiles had only just

finished his Airbus training.

JEFFREY SKILES: This was my first trip out

as a regular line pilot in the Airbus A320.

I literally was right out of training.

And the benefit of that he knew exactly the

checklist to turn to.

And that's exactly what he did.

JEFFREY SKILES: If fuel remaining,

engine mode selector ignition.

KATHERINE WILSON: Crews are highly trained in emergency

procedures.

And the main thing is to follow procedures in this instance.

And that's exactly what First Officer Skiles did by grabbing

the Quick Reference Handbook and turning

to the appropriate checklist.

NARRATOR: But as investigators examine the checklist

for restarting this plane's engines,

they make a troubling discovery.

It was assembled for an event that occurred 20,000 feet

in the air, where a crew would have plenty of time to slowly

and carefully go through a three-page checklist,

the end of which was, how do we ditch the airplane?

JEFFREY SKILES: So it was a three-page checklist.

And really, I only got to about the-- page and a half

through this checklist in the time that we had.

Airspeed optimum relay.

KATHERINE WILSON: And the crew spent a lot of time trying

to restart the engines when they could

have been focusing on preparing the airplane for the ditching.

300 knots.

We don't have that.

We don't.

NARRATOR: Overly complicated checklists

have played a role in deadly plane crashes in the past.

In 1998, a fire broke out onboard

a Swiss Air passenger jet.

The checklist the crew used for that situation

would have taken them up to a half an hour to complete.

It was a half hour they didn't have.

But on Flight 1549, the checklist

was far from the greatest challenge

facing Sullenberger and Skiles.

I'm not sure we can make any runway.

NARRATOR: Water landings are notoriously

difficult because, unless they're perfect,

they can be catastrophic.

In 1996, after a hijacking, an Ethiopian Airlines captain

tried to land off the Comoros Islands

when his plane ran out of fuel.

His left wing hit the water first,

causing the plane to cartwheel.

It was ripped to pieces.

Of the 175 people onboard, only 50 survived.

Investigators soon learned that none of the major airlines

use simulators to teach pilots how to land on water.

Training for ditching in a simulator is very difficult.

We don't have the models to accurately

simulate what an airplane would do

when it touches down on water.

Given the rarity of this type of event,

it would be very difficult to justify training

pilots for this type of event.

NARRATOR: But even without ever going through a simulation,

Captain Sullenberger got almost everything right.

He kept the nose up and wings level.

He let the tail hit the water first,

slowing the jet down enough so that it survived the impact.

Nice flying.

NARRATOR: NTSB investigators turn to their own simulation

to answer a vital question.

This is the captain.

NARRATOR: Did Sullenberger have to land in the Hudson,

or could he have made it to a runway?

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

This is Cactus 1549.

Hit birds--

NARRATOR: Investigators studied Chesley Sullenberger

and Jeffrey Skiles' actions in the moments

after the plane collided with birds.

Ignition.

KATHERINE WILSON: We wanted to know,

did the pilots do the right thing?

So what we did in the simulator was we tested exactly that.

Was there enough energy to make it back to LaGuardia?

And what we found was that about 50% of the time,

we were able to make it back to the airport.

NARRATOR: But when a 35-second delay is imposed after the bird

strike to account for the crew's attempt to restart the engines,

all the simulator pilots crash before reaching the runway.

KATHERINE WILSON: When we took into consideration

the decision-making process that Captain Sullenberger went

through, we realized that it was not possible to make it back

to the airport.

Cactus 1549, runway 4 is available.

NARRATOR: There's no doubt.

We're going to be in the Hudson.

NARRATOR: Putting the plane in the Hudson was the right call.

Sullenberger didn't have enough altitude

to glide to either LaGuardia or Teterboro Airports.

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER (ON RECORDING): I've got one roll.

Both of them rolling back.

NARRATOR: The investigators also discovered--

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER (ON RECORDING): Ignition start.

NARRATOR: --that Sullenberger made a decision that wasn't

at the top of the checklist, one that

was critical to the survival of everyone on board.

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER: I'm starting the APU.

NARRATOR: On commercial jetliners,

the engines provide power to electrical systems.

If the engine stopped working, the crew

eventually loses those systems.

The APU is an emergency generator

that keeps some things running.

The APU allowed him to still see his screens.

The instruments still worked.

NARRATOR: It also allowed the A320 itself to assist

with the heroic landing.

The APU provided power to the plane's electronic brain,

stopping the pilots from making any potentially

dangerous moves.

It kept them inside a so-called flight envelope.

By starting the APU early in the sequence,

the flight crew was able to maintain the flight envelope

protections, which prevented the airplane from stalling

when the airspeed got too slow.

He's right on the edge of stall speed.

NARRATOR: The flight data shows that Sullenberger was going

slower than the ideal speed.

KATHERINE WILSON: The airspeed during the accident

sequence got about 20 knots slower than it should

have been for this flight.

NARRATOR: But the A320's flight computer

is designed to constantly adjust the plane's pitch

and keep it from stalling.

KATHERINE WILSON: We definitely could

have had a much more catastrophic outcome had

the airplane actually stalled.

Starting the APU.

NARRATOR: Sullenberger's quick thinking

made sure the plane's complex computer system kept working.

It gave him an automated safety net

so he'd have the best chance to do the nearly impossible.

We're going to be in the Hudson.

ROBERT BENZON: It was a combination of a good crew

and a good airplane.

Let's go.

Put the flaps out.

The captain had the presence of mind,

for instance, just before they were about to land a couple

of hundred feet in the air to turn to the first officer

and ask, got any ideas?

Actually, not.

They were both coordinating right up to the end.

And that's what we like to see.

NARRATOR: Skill, training, and the aircraft's very design

combined to save the lives of 155 people.

But investigators still want to know how birds crippled two

highly advanced jet engines, and if they can

stop it from happening again.

Eight days after the

crash, investigators

are finally able to examine the engines in detail.

Richard Dolbeer has spent much of his career

studying collisions between birds and airplanes.

When aircraft strikes a bird, generally, there's

not much left of the bird, particularly if that bird

goes through the engine.

NARRATOR: The engines are analyzed piece by piece

to try and figure out exactly what happened

3,000 feet above New York.

Let's look inside.

We exposed the engine surfaces to a black light.

Proteins from many tissues will fluoresce with a black light.

Much of the tissue was already gone, but many of the proteins

stayed on the surfaces of the engine.

Look at that.

NARRATOR: Deep in the right engine, investigators

find about a cup of charred remains.

Most of the remains found were just

muscle tissue, bone fragments, and minuscule feather remains.

I was able to find about 29 samples in one engine and 14

in the other.

NARRATOR: But the engines aren't the only part of the plane

that's been damaged.

- Birds. - Whoa!

The aircraft hit many birds, so we

found evidence on the wings and on the flaps

and on the fuselage.

But the plane can still fly when that occurs.

NARRATOR: The threat posed by bird strikes is well known.

RICHARD DOLBEER: Bird strikes are a much bigger problem than

the general public realizes.

In the last 20 years, there have been approximately 210

aircraft that have been destroyed because

of collisions with birds.

NARRATOR: This Boeing 757 ingested a crow

while taking off from Manchester, England,

later landing safely.

In 2008 alone, there were four dramatic accidents.

A Boeing 747 sucked a kestrel into one of its engines.

The crew aborted takeoff and survived.

The plane was ruined.

This jet ingested pelicans into both engines.

And one ended up in the cockpit.

Repairs cost $2 million.

The engine of an MD10 was severely damaged by a gadwall.

The repair cost was $900,000.

And five people were killed when this Cessna smashed

into at least one pelican.

More than 200 people have died in bird strike accidents

since 1998.

The problem could get worse, because there

are more birds out there.

By restricting the use of pesticides that were

hazardous to birds, such as DDT, we've seen a tremendous rebound

in the populations of bird species, a remarkable increase

in the Canada geese that are resident, nonmigratory birds.

Nationwide, the population has grown from about 1 million

to about 4 million.

NARRATOR: At LaGuardia, one of the airport's biggest problems

is a year-round goose colony on nearby Rikers Island.

RICHARD DOLBEER: From the year 2002 to 2004,

there were eight Canada goose strikes at LaGuardia Airport,

involved birds either on the airport

or right off of the airport.

One of those strikes almost caused a plane to crash.

And it was a very close call.

NARRATOR: For the past several years,

airport officials have rounded up hundreds of geese

from Rikers Island and euthanized them.

It's controversial but should be effective.

So where did these birds come from?

NARRATOR: If the geese that hit US Airways Flight 1549

were local, they can be controlled.

Investigators need to know more about them.

The remains that we did find were so small that we couldn't

really tell what type of birds.

We enlisted the help of the Smithsonian Institution.

They can take remains, even very small remains,

small pieces of feathers or flesh or whatever,

and they can identify them.

NARRATOR: The hope is that DNA analysis of the remains

will not only confirm the bird species but also offer clues

as to where they came from.

While they wait for answers, investigators

turn to answering the question of how a few birds forced

a 68-ton jet from the sky.

engines undergo rigorous testing to prove they can perform

under extreme conditions.

The tests include ingesting frozen bird carcasses.

The CFM turbofan engines that power the A320

passed those tests and were certified in 1996.

The large bird test required for the CFM engine is shooting

a 4-pound bird from an air cannon into the engine, which

is running at near full power.

NARRATOR: To pass, the engines don't have to keep running.

They only have to stay together, which they

did on Sullenberger's plane.

Well, the engines did not experience what

we call uncontained failures.

No large chunks of fan blades or anything

flew out through the cowls to hurt

people inside the airplane.

Fan blades are always the most interesting part to look at.

And they often tell quite a story.

NARRATOR: A series of fan blades throughout the engine

compress incoming air until it's ignited in the core,

creating thrust.

Ingested birds can wreak havoc on this process.

When a fan blade of an engine fails,

it causes a lot of continuing damage.

In this particular case, all the fan blades were there.

They suffered severe damage, but none were broken.

NARRATOR: An analysis of the engine

shows that, while the primary fan blade survived the impact,

the delicate machinery inside the cores of both engines

did not.

Uh-oh.

We got one roll, both of them rolling back.

Once we went into the engine itself into the core,

we determined that there was significant damage.

When a bird gets ingested into the core,

it is such a large mass compared to these blades

that it does a lot of damage to them.

NARRATOR: The birds ingested into Flight 1549--

Mayday, mayday, mayday.

This is Cactus 1549.

NARRATOR: --ripped apart the engines compressors.

Metal shards from these broken compressors

were sucked deep into the cores of both engines,

shutting them down.

We've hit birds.

We've lost thrust in both engines.

NARRATOR: When DNA results come back from the Smithsonian

Institution, investigators finally understand why Flight

1549 lost both of its engines.

The birds that struck Sullenberger

and Skiles' aircraft were adult Canada geese.

They were far larger than anything

the engines were ever test for.

Because of that analysis, we know

that these birds ingested each probably

weighed about 10 pounds.

NARRATOR: The tests also confirmed

that as many as four large birds had hit Flight 1549's engines.

It was simply too much for them to handle.

HARALD REICHEL: Rarely do birds get ingested

into the core of the engine.

Rarely--

Uh-oh.

HARALD REICHEL: --does an engine ingest the bird

and then stop running completely.

That's a very rare event.

Ignition start.

HARALD REICHEL: But what makes this one even rarer

is that both engines ingested birds and both shut down.

We're going to be in the Hudson.

NARRATOR: The DNA test also proves that the geese involved

in this accident were not the local geese that LaGuardia

has worked so hard to manage.

These were geese that had been in northern Canada

during the preceding summer.

They were migratory geese.

NARRATOR: The collision between the migrating geese

and Flight 1549 happened a little over 4 miles

from the airport.

It means that none of the existing programs

for reducing the number of birds would

have prevented the collision.

It also means that what happened to that flight

could happen again, unless a way can be found

to keep birds and planes apart.

MAN (ON RADIO): 52 1 rotor contact loss.

Report 20 DME southeastern.

I won't pick you up at that altitude that far out, sir.

NARRATOR: Every year, about 2 million planes

pass over New York's airspace.

RICHARD DOLBEER: Most people do not

appreciate the problems that birds can cause to aircraft.

They don't realize how a small, seemingly insignificant

organism in relation to the size of an aircraft

can cause these kinds of catastrophic failures.

NARRATOR: The airline industry needs to find

solutions to bird strikes.

Placing screens in front of the engines

is one of the most obvious answers.

But there are serious drawbacks.

Screens can fall off.

Screens can break.

And then they would be ingested into the engine

causing similar damage or more catastrophic damage.

NARRATOR: Screens can also introduce turbulence

to the airflow, which can starve the engines of air

causing them to fail.

Winter weather is also a serious problem for engine screens.

HARALD REICHEL: A screen is a perfect ice builder,

and it will accrete ice very quickly in icing conditions.

NARRATOR: A more promising solution

is already being tested in several American cities,

including New York.

At John F. Kennedy Airport, specialized radar

is sweeping the sky's looking for birds near planes.

It can distinguish items the size of hummingbirds.

If any birds are detected moving through flight paths,

crews could be alerted.

I would love to see bird radar technology.

The key would be how to incorporate

that without increasing workload to an already

stressed controller.

NARRATOR: Tests continue, but widespread use of avian radar

is still in its infancy.

PATRICK HARTEN (ON RADIO): Cactus 1549, runway 4 clear

for takeoff.

Cactus 1549, clear for takeoff.

NARRATOR: Until then, collisions between birds and planes

will continue.

What the safe outcome of Flight 1549 proved is that, right now,

the best defense against this threat

is a good team in the cockpit.

We had a very experienced flight

crew with very good training.

My aircraft.

Your aircraft.

Get the QRH.

All your training that you've done all the years that you've

been flying the airplanes, it all just comes back to you

when you when you need it.

My aircraft.

Your aircraft.

JEFFREY SKILES: Sully and I worked together

extremely well in this event.

I knew what was in his mind, and he knew what was in my mind.

We were both accomplishing our individual roles,

but we had a knowledge of the whole situation.

OK, you need to return to LaGuardia.

Turn left, heading 2, 2, 0.

2, 2, 0.

PATRICK HARTEN: This event definitely

puts things in perspective for you as a controller.

One thing I appreciate more, the teamwork

and how when you work together you

can pretty much accomplish whatever

you need to accomplish.

Off to your right side is Teterboro airport.

You want to try and make Teterboro?

We're going to be in the Hudson.

NARRATOR: The landing in the Hudson took training and skill.

It also took a bit of luck.

We had a very clear day.

We had a perfect condition for the river.

So there was just a series of really fortunate events

that occurred that assisted this crew in landing

successfully on the river.

ROBERT BENZON: Well, at the Safety Board,

we don't really deal in miracles very often.

But this event had a lot of things

that came together at the right time and the right place.

And so a lot of us are thinking, well, maybe

we do have a miracle here.

What a view of the Hudson today.