On January 15, 2009,
US Airways Flight 1549 (AWE1549), an
Airbus A320 piloted by Captain
Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles, made an
unpowered emergency
water landing in the
Hudson River after multiple
bird strikes caused both jet engines to fail. All 155 occupants, the passengers and crew, successfully evacuated from the partially submerged
airframe as it sank into the river; they were rescued by nearby
watercraft. Several occupants suffered injuries, a few of them serious, but only one required hospitalization overnight. The incident came to be known as the "
Miracle on the Hudson", and Captain Sullenberger and the crew were hailed as heroes.