‘Sully’: Tom Hanks, Clint Eastwood and Aaron Eckhart on the untold story of the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’
by Kelli Hill
Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger became a national hero on January 15, 2009, when he landed US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York City, saving the lives of his crew and the 150 passengers on board. The flight had taken off from LaGuardia Airport, encountered a bird strike and just 208 seconds later, was floating in the Hudson. Sully’s emergency landing became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
Yahoo Global News Anchor Katie Couric sat down with Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood and actors Tom Hanks and Aaron Eckhart to talk about their new movie, “Sully,” and the untold story behind that miracle landing.
In the film, Eastwood focuses on what happened after that day, when Sully and his co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, played by Hanks and Eckhart respectively, faced intense questioning by the National Transportation Safety Board about their decision to land the plane in the river. The investigation was not widely publicized. “It was just private meetings and asking a lot of questions, and that’s their job,” Eastwood said, “but there’s no reason for an accident like that other than the fact that it happened.”
“The NTSB doesn’t get to question the participants in an air disaster,” Hanks added. “It was unique that everyone had survived and they were investigating a successful forced water landing.”
Hanks was ready to take a break from acting when he read the screenplay written by Todd Komarnicki, and felt he couldn’t say no to playing Capt. Sully. “I had no idea the concept of the PTSD, of the pressure that this man felt,” Hanks told Couric. “All the little tiny, small details of how he got through, honestly the worst nine months of his life, after being celebrated like he’s some kind of combination of Elvis and Superman.”
On how Capt. Sully knew the plane lost both engines
Both Hanks and Eckhart spoke with Sully and Skiles during filming about that day in the cockpit and the events that followed. “I talked to Jeff on the phone and he explained everything that was going on mentally and physically with him and how he dealt with it.” Eckhart said. “I think the most interesting thing that people want to know is what were you thinking while this was happening, and they didn’t have time to think. They just had time to react and rely on their training.”
Eastwood on his own emergency water landing
Eastwood had himself been in a water landing at age 21, when he was passenger in a military plane. “It was a good water landing, much like Sully did. The plane didn’t float though. We had about 30 seconds to get out of it,” Eastwood said. “The pilot said, ‘What do you think?’ to me, and I said, ‘I guess we’re going swimming.’”
Even after the NTSB questioned Sully’s actions on that day, there is no denying Sully’s decisions saved the lives of the everyone on that plane with his quick thinking. “The fact is that Sully is a star,” Eastwood said. “When he walks in the room, he is a little more than the average man as far as his presence.”
