Introduction

January 15th 2009 US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320 with 155 people on board, is taken off from New York's LaGuardia Airport bound for Charlotte, North Carolina. Less than two minutes after takeoff at approximately 2,818 feet in the air, the plane flies through a flock of Canadian geese which are ingested into both plane engines causing them to lose power. Without any engine thrust at less than 3,000 feet above New York City, the crew has little time to weigh their options. They ultimately decide to ditch the plane into the Hudson River and miraculously all of those on board survive. Exactly what happened that led to this event? What was going on in