Hanks, Eastwood team up for Hudson emergency landing drama ‘Sully’

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Clint Eastwood directs Oscar winner Tom Hanks in “Sully”, a biographical drama about the pilot behind the 2009 successful emergency plane landing in the Hudson River.

On January 15, 2009, Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the river after both engines lost thrust after the aircraft struck a flock of geese following take-off from New York’s LaGuardia airport.

All 155 passengers and crew survived and the event was dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson”.

Hanks portrays the pilot in the movie while “Olympus Has Fallen” actor Aaron Eckhart plays his co-pilot Jeff Skiles.

“I wanted it to be just like it was and that’s pretty close to what it was,” Eastwood said at the film’s premiere in New York on Tuesday. “I fly a little bit too so I know what a water landing looks like and feels like.”

“Sully” hits cinemas worldwide from Thursday.

(Reporting By Reuters Television; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)