“Flight 1549 headed for Charlotte”

Posted: 06 Jan 2011 09:25 PM PST

2009 GETTY FILE PHOTO

On Jan. 15, 2009, rescue crews secure US Airways flight 1549 after the jetliner lost power in both engines and glided to a landing in the Hudson River. The plane, headed to Charlotte, will go in Carolinas Aviation Museum.

USAirways Flight 1549, the plane that made the "miracle" landing on New York's Hudson River in 2009, is about to make its long-overdue arrival in Charlotte.

Officials with the Carolinas Aviation Museum say they've all but finalized an agreement that would put the Airbus A320 on permanent display as a tourist attraction.

"The aircraft is an international aviation icon," museum president Shawn Dorch said Tuesday. "It's recognized around the world."

The plane flown by Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger had just taken off fromLaGuardia on Jan. 15, 2009, en route to Charlotte when it collided with a flock of Canada geese and lost both engines. It glided to a landing on the Hudson, where passengers emerged and lined up on half-submerged wings. All 155 passengers and crew members were rescued.

Since then, the plane has been stored in pieces in a New Jersey warehouse. The wings and tail are detached. So are the engines, one of which was pulled from the river bottom, 65 feet below the surface.

But Dorch said the inside of the plane's fuselage "is like a time capsule."

"The Coke cans are in the food carts," he said. "Except for the passenger belongings, virtually everything else is still in the airplane just like it was."

Dorch said the museum appears to have beaten out others - including the Smithsonian - in acquiring the plane. He declined to say how much it will pay to get the plane from the insurance company that now owns it.

"The big reason we have prevailed is that first of all we wanted to display the entire plane," he said. "This is a Charlotte story. ... There are so many survivors in Charlotte."

He and others expect it to draw thousands of visitors to the museum, which is just off Airport Drive. It would be added to a collection that includes a Piedmont Airlines DC-3 as well as fighter planes.

"It has the potential to be a big tourism draw," said Tim Newman, chief executive of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority.

Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Cannon, who helped the museum acquire the plane, called it "a major catalyst in the western portion of thecity."

Mayor Anthony Foxx said that in addition to proving an attraction and learning tool, the plane would "commemorate the brave men and women, particularly the pilot and crew, who saved so many lives."

Dorch said he hopes to have the plane on exhibit by May, after it's trucked down from New Jersey. Full reassembly, he said, might take a year.

Some passengers say they'll welcome the plane's arrival.

"It's a wonderful thing, because it certainly is a daily reminder of how fortunate we all were that day," said Clay Presley, president of Carolina Pad, who sat in seat 15D. "It gives me an opportunity to show my family, my kids and grandkids where I was sitting that day."

Lee Fazzi, a director with Deloitte & Touche, was seated in 7D.

"I know it continues to have an interest and fascination for a lot of people," he said.

Plans for an exhibit are still evolving. Cannon has his own vision of the plane resting in a pool of water.

"Potentially," he said, "[you'd] have the opportunity one day to actually walk out on the wings of this plane and look down as if you're actually on the Hudson River itself."

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

“Flight 1549 headed for Charlotte”

“Flight 1549 headed for Charlotte”

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