Step into the shoes of Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger on this ‘Sully’ flight sim experience! Simulate what it was like in the cockpit of the famous US Airways flight 1549 when it emergency-landed in the Hudson River. Will you hold your nerve to glide in land safely? Or would you have turned back to base? This brilliant Sully simulator experience lets you explore all the scenarios.
On January 15th 2009 Captain Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles took off from LaGuardia Airport in New York to fly US Airways flight number 1549 to Charlotte Douglas Airport in North Carolina. Within minutes of take-off and at about 2800ft the Airbus struck a flock of Canada Geese. Both engines are out. With 155 passengers and crew onboard what would you do?
At the National Transportation Safety Board review of what happened during the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ the question of what form of action the pilot should have taken was discussed and simulated flights were done with pilots in real time to simulate the ‘Sully’ flight. This experience does the same giving you a very authentic insight into the decisions pilots face in an emergency.
After around 30 minutes getting used to the controls of the sim (which is exactly the same as the US Airways 1549 Airbus A320) it’s time to test the three different theories just as the investigation did. Could you turn back to land back at LaGuardia? Could you divert to Teterboro Airport? Or was landing in the Hudson the only option?
The time for Chesley Sullenberg and Jeff Stiles to carry out the necessary emergency checks after the bird strikes and the decision making time added up to 35 seconds. Let’s see how it pans out for you on your Sully flight sim attempts. With that crucial time before reacting included in the simulated scenarios at the investigation the pilots who tried to turn back or divert crashed.
The NTSB found Captain ’Sully’ was justified in his decision to glide and ditch into the Hudson. But it’s no mean feat even for the most experienced of airline pilots. For your third Sully fight sim experience the pressure is on to perform that text book landing on water just like hero Captain Sullenberger that cold winter’s day in January 2009…
