How a 1977 catastrophe on a small highway in Paulding County, Georgia played a role in the Miracle on the Hudson








Sadly there was no miracle for most of the passengers of Southern Airways flight 242 which crash landed on a Highway 92 (now Dallas-Acworth Highway) in New Hope, Georgia about 17 miles west of Marietta on the night of April 4th, 1977.  The Southern Airways DC-9 passenger jet had suffered extensive hail damage in a severe thunderstorm en route from Muscle Shoals, Alabama to Atlanta. The hail was so severe that it shattered the windshield, caused both engines to flame-out and forced the pilots to make an immediate emergency landing.  But there was no airport close enough, or so they thought.  Air Traffic Control suggested Dobbins Air Force Base, which was 20 miles away but it was too far. The closer airport was Cornelius Moore field, now called Polk County airport, but somehow the air traffic controllers were not aware of this airport as it was just outside their area of responsibility.   Running out of options, time and altitude, the pilots spotted a straight section of highway through the broken windshield.  The crew was able to land the plane but it crashed into a gas station and other buildings during the rollout.  Tragically, 63 out of the 85 passengers on board lost their lives, and 9 people on the ground were killed.

The pilots, though highly experienced with over 23,000 flight hours between them, did not have training for the situation where there was a total loss of engine thrust.  Neither the FAA nor Southern Airways required pilots to train for this situation because “the failure of all engines on a jet-powered carrier aircraft was deemed too remote as to not require training or special procedures.” (NTSB Aircraft Accident Report AAR-78-03) There was no record of this ever happening before. The crash has been featured on The Weather Channel's “Why Planes Crash” and the Discovery Channel series “Mayday”.  After this crash in Paulding County, pilots began training for complete loss of power in all engines, whether it be from hail, birds or otherwise.  Captain Sully would have received this training early in his career and skillfully drew upon this training when he safely landed US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River on January 15, 2009, after suffering a complete loss of power in all engines.





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