On January 15, 2009, the Airbus A320 serving the flight struck a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, losing all engine power.

Given their position in relation to the available airports and their low altitude, pilots Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles decided to glide the plane to ditching on the Hudson River near Midtown Manhattan.

The then-Governor of New York State, David Paterson, called the incident a "Miracle on the Hudson"[3][4][5] and a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official described it as "the most successful ditching in aviation history".

[7] However, the NTSB found that the scenario did not account for real-world considerations, and affirmed the ditching as providing the highest probability of survival, given the circumstances.

[13][14][15] The second in command (co-pilot) was 49-year-old First Officer Jeffrey Skiles,[13][16][17] who had accrued 15,643 career flight hours, including 37 in an A320,[8]: 8  but this was his first A320 assignment as pilot flying.

The pilots' view was filled with the large birds;[23][24] passengers and crew heard very loud bangs and saw flames from the engines, followed by silence and an odor of fuel.

[22] Air traffic controller Patrick Harten[31] told LaGuardia's tower to hold all departures, and directed Sullenberger back to Runway 13.

[36] About ninety seconds later, at 15:30, the plane made an unpowered ditching, descending southwards at about 125 knots (140 mph; 230 km/h) into the middle of the North River section of the Hudson tidal estuary, at 40°46′10″N 74°00′16″W / 40.769444°N 74.004444°W / 40.769444; -74.004444[37] on the New York side of the state line, roughly opposite West 50th Street (near the Intrepid Museum) in Midtown Manhattan and Port Imperial in Weehawken, New Jersey.

The evacuation was made more difficult by the fact that someone opened the rear left door, allowing more water to enter the plane; whether this was a flight attendant[39] or a passenger is disputed.

[32][50][51] Two NY Waterway ferries arrived within minutes[52][53] and began taking people aboard using a Jason's cradle;[34] numerous other boats, including from the U.S. Coast Guard, were quickly on scene as well.

[65] Each passenger later received a letter of apology, $5,000 in compensation for lost baggage (and $5,000 more if they could demonstrate larger losses), and a refund of their ticket price.

[68] Many passengers and rescuers later experienced post-traumatic stress symptoms such as sleeplessness, flashbacks, and panic attacks; some began an email support group.

[69] Patrick Harten, the controller who had worked the flight, said that "the hardest, most traumatic part of the entire event was when it was over", and that he was "gripped by raw moments of shock and grief".

"[71] In an effort to prevent similar accidents, officials captured and exterminated 1,235 Canada geese at 17 locations across New York City in mid-2009 and coated 1,739 goose eggs with oil to smother the developing goslings.

[74][75][76][77] The partially submerged plane was towed downstream and moored to a pier near the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, roughly 4 miles (6 km) from the ditching location.

[81] The initial National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) evaluation that the plane had lost thrust after a bird strike[82][83][84] was confirmed by analysis of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.

The bird remains[88][93] were later identified by DNA testing to be Canada geese, which typically weigh more than engines are designed to withstand ingesting.

[88] Since the plane had been assembled in France, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA; the European counterpart of the FAA) and the Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA; the French counterpart of the NTSB) joined the investigation, with technical assistance from Airbus and GE Aviation/Snecma, respectively the manufacturers of the airframe and the engines.

[97] The Board ultimately ruled that Sullenberger had made the correct decision,[97] reasoning that the checklist for dual-engine failure is designed for higher altitudes when pilots have more time to deal with the situation, and that while simulations showed that the plane might have just barely made it back to LaGuardia, those scenarios assumed an instant decision to do so, with no time allowed for assessing the situation.

[8]: 123  The final report credited the outcome to four factors: good decision-making and teamwork by the cockpit crew (including decisions to immediately turn on the APU and to ditch in the Hudson); that the A320 is certified for extended overwater operation (and hence carried life vests and additional raft/slides) even though not required for that route; the performance of the flight crew during the evacuation; and the proximity of working vessels to the ditching site.

The report made 34 recommendations, including that engines be tested for resistance to bird strikes at low speeds; development of checklists for dual-engine failures at low altitude, and changes to checklist design in general "to minimize the risk of flight crewmembers becoming stuck in an inappropriate checklist or portion of a checklist"; improved pilot training for water landings; provision of life vests on all flights regardless of route, and changes to the locations of vests and other emergency equipment; research into improved wildlife management, and technical innovations on aircraft, to reduce bird strikes; research into possible changes in passenger brace positions; and research into "methods of overcoming passengers' inattention" during preflight safety briefings.

This design allowed the pilots of Flight 1549 to concentrate on engine restart and deciding the course, without the burden of manually adjusting the glidepath to reduce the plane's rate of descent.

[105] The crew received a standing ovation at the Super Bowl XLIII on February 1, 2009,[106] and Sullenberger threw the ceremonial first pitch of the 2009 Major League Baseball season for the San Francisco Giants.

[115] Sullenberger's 2009 memoir, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, was adapted into the feature film Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood.

[121] In 2014, on the 5th anniversary of the event, Sherwin released a "hip hop ballet" music video wherein a dancer portrays Sullenberger and three ballerinas represent the geese.