‘Sully’ plane is a hit for N.C. aviation museum

John Bordsen / Chicago Tribune
The roped-off Airbus A320 sits low to the ground so that the jet's tall tail can fit inside the museum's dimly lit hangar.
John Bordsen / Chicago Tribune
Flight 1549 items in the museum's gift-shop lobby: The jet is the centerpiece of the Carolinas Aviation Museum, about a three-minute cab ride from the airport terminal. Museum attendance more than doubled after "Sully" reached the big screen.
John Bordsen / Chicago Tribune
The crumpled bottom of the jet, which became detached when the plane made initial contact with the Hudson River, is positioned below the tail of the Airbus.
John Bordsen / Chicago Tribune
Volunteer docents provide details about the "Miracle on the Hudson" airliner at the museum. Among them is Ron Gipson, a Chicago native who moved to Charlotte 20 years ago.
John Bordsen / Chicago Tribune
The left engine, still detached, has been reassembled. Look closely, and you can see dried "snarge" — guts of geese that crippled the engines — on its blades.
John Bordsen / Chicago Tribune
Next to the port wing of the jet is the left engine, which became detached on impact with the Hudson River. Its analysis after recovery proved both engines were disabled following post-liftoff bird strikes.

PUBLISHED: February 10, 2017 at 2:48 p.m. | UPDATED: August 23, 2019 at 7:49 p.m.

The 2016 movie “Sully” didn’t get much Oscar love; the Tom Hanks film is only up for one Academy Award — for sound editing.

But the biopic got a lot of people flocking to the Carolinas Aviation Museum, home of the actual plane that Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed safely in the Hudson River. Visitor numbers more than doubled after “Sully” hit the big screen in September, museum spokesperson Jan Black said.

The storied plane is the centerpiece of the aviation museum near Charlotte Douglas International Airport, where the Airbus A320 was scheduled to land on that fateful day eight years ago.

US Airways Flight 1549 had just taken off from New York when it struck a flock of Canada geese, disabling its engines. Sully made an emergency water landing, and every one of the 150 passengers and five crew members survived the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

The recovered aircraft was moved in 2011 to the museum — an appropriate resting place given that at least half of the people onboard were from Charlotte, a major hub for US Airways, which completed its merger with American Airlines in 2015.

The museum’s hangar collection is dominated by the “Miracle on the Hudson” jet. To accommodate the height of the Airbus tail, the hulk sits low — maybe 4 feet above the pavement — on a custom-made mount. Monitors facing the 137,789-pound airliner show 2009 newscasts, interviews with passengers and the recovery of the Airbus from the Hudson.

But your attention keeps returning to the un-restored Airbus: the bottom that detached when making initial contact with the Hudson; the dings, dents and other mayhem visited on the lower fuselage; the left engine separated from the jet and recovered later. You can still spot dried “snarge,” the guts of geese that crippled both engines.

The museum’s storyboards, displays and well-informed docents help flesh out the story beyond the pilot-oriented film. For example, Flight 1549 was popular with corporate commuters returning to their jobs at Charlotte’s big retailers and banks. The execs’ team-building skills proved an asset when the downed jet had to be evacuated.

Adult admission to the museum is $12; www.carolinasaviation.org.

John Bordsen is a freelance writer.

10 spring break vacation ideas, with or without kids

New food tours offer deep dive into Key West seafood, rum

http://aff.bstatic.com/static/affiliate_base/js/booking_sp_widget.js?checkin=2017-07-20&checkout=2017-07-21&iata_orr=1&iata=ORD