The true story of Captain Sully’s heroic plane landing on the River Hudson has been turned into a fantastic movie, available now on DVD and Blu-ray, but who exactly was the man who saved the lives of over a hundred people on board his flight that day?
Tom Hanks stars in the flick
Captain Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, the subject of the movie was flying a plane in 2009 which struck a flock of birds while 2,818 feet in the air, before losing all of its engine power. Quickly discovering that no airports were in the radius, Captain Sully carried out an emergency landing following some quick thinking on the River Hudson. Within 208 seconds, from the point the birds were struck to the landing, Captain Sully managed to save every life – 155 people – on board the flight.
Here are some other real-life heroes that have saved lives with their own knowledge and quick-thinking…
Tilly Smith, from Oxshott, Surrey was away on holiday with her family in Phuket, Thailand when the tide immediately rushed out on Maikhao beach. Having studied tsunamis in a geography class just two weeks before the holiday, Tilly warned her family to get off the beach as the natural disaster could be about to hit. Explaining how she’d completed a project on tsunamis, she said how the huge waves were the beginnings of the warning signs that a tsunami was minutes away, and managed to save her family with her quickfire knowledge.
Police Officer Paul Sherridan led hundreds of people to safety following an avalanche in Nepal, fronting a two-hour trek down a mountain when everybody else was left panicking. At 49-years-old, the officer did everything in his power and used his knowledge of having the right equipment to get the job done, warning those trekking with him not to attempt to take any shortcuts so that further tragedy could be avoided.
David Tirado, army veteran saw an unconscious man fall onto subway tracks with just minutes to go before a train would speed past and undoubtedly kill the man. With his instincts kicking in, Tirado jumped onto the tracks and moved him back to the platform, saving his life while putting his own at risk.
Mateusz Szymanski is a Polish train driver, who applied the emergency brakes to his mode of transport when he saw a truck in the tracks closely ahead. Hoping to slow the train down before impact was made, he pushed through the carriages as his vehicle sped ahead, warning passengers on board to get back and jump to the floor wherever possible to minimise injuries. On that day, he saved many lives with his selfless act.
Jeremy Wuitschick, at just 13-years-old saved an entire school bus from peril in April, 2012. Sitting in his usual spot on the bus just a few seats from the front of the vehicle, he saw the bus driver suddenly slump down, with the bus then veering forward without a guide. Grabbing the controls and steering to the side of the road, he realised he couldn’t hit the brakes, but brought the vehicle to a stop when he pulled the keys from the ignition.
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Sully: Miracle on the Hudson is available now on DVD and Blu-ray.