Acquisition of US Airways Flight 1549 Airbus
On 15 January 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from New York's LaGuardia Airport for a flight to Charlotte. Multiple bird strikes on climb out forced a ditching in the Hudson River. The ditching and subsequent rescue operations were accomplished without loss of life. The aircraft was eventually recovered from the river.
On January 3, 2011 it was reported in the New York Post that the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina has acquired the entire airframe from Chartis Insurance. The New York Times, the Associated Press, and numerous others followed up with additional articles on January 5, 2011.
The airframe was transported by road from its storage location at J Supor & Son Trucking & Rigging Co. Inc. in Kearny, New Jersey to the display facility at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte starting on June 4 and arrived on June 10, 2011. The road trip took 7 days, and covered 788 miles in NJ, DE, MD, WV, VA & NC. J Supor & Son transported the aircraft to the Museum. Because the fuselage was transported in one piece, as it was when it was recovered from the river, the truck was 190 feet long. Virtually everything except the passenger’s personal effects are still in the airplane. The landing gear pins, fire axe, and the manuals were still in the cockpit, and the Coke cans were still in the food carts.
The airframe has been reassembled and is now on display, in the same configuration as it was when it was pulled out of the Hudson River in January 2009. The airframe is being conserved, as opposed to restored, with dents from the birds and tugboat.
In addition to the airframe, Captain Sullenberger and First Office Skiles have contributed their uniforms to the Museum's 1549 exhibit.
The aircraft arrived in June 2011 of the main components took about one year. The engines arrived in May 2012 and should be reassembled in time for the fourth anniversary of the landing in the Hudson (January 15, 2013). The Museum opened a majore new exhibit about 1549, with artifacts such as Captain Sullenberger's uniform in August 2012.
The Museum, in conjunction with the North Carolina School of the Arts Film School, is producing a movie about the project to save, move, reassemble, and display the aircraft. The movie should be completed sometime in the middle of 2013.
The aircraft is an A-320-214. CN/MSN is 1044.
Read more about this topic: Carolinas Aviation Museum
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