Chesley Sullenberger 29 to 31, 2007. On January 15, 2009, Sullenberger was the captain of US Airways Flight 1549, an Airbus A320 taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. Shortly after takeoff, the plane struck a large flock of birds (Canada geese) and lost power in both engines. Quickly determining he would be unable to reach either LaGuardia or Teterboro airport, Sullenberger piloted the plane to a water landing on the Hudson River. All 155 people on board survived and were rescued by nearby boats. Sullenberger said later: "It was very quiet as we worked, my copilot Jeff Skiles and
US Airways the Express and Shuttle divisions had liveries that closely paralleled the company-wide livery at the time, but later shared the same aircraft with mainline US Airways. The pre-1995 US Airways featured a dark blue livery; after it merged with America West, US Airways, switched to a mostly white livery. Following US Airways merger with American Airlines, all US Airways aircraft were progressively painted into the American Airlines livery. The first jet to re-enter revenue service in the American livery in January 2014 was an Airbus A319, tail number N700UW, which previously sported a Star Alliance branding. However, one aircraft, an