Charlotte’s New Aviation Museum Deserves Plane from Legendary Flight

By Mohammad Jenatian, HTA

After a safe and miraculous emergency landing in the Hudson River, US Airways Flight 1549 may finally be on its way towards its intended destination of Charlotte.

You may remember the day in January 2009 when this amazing landing captured the attention of people around the globe and worldwide media coverage, particularly due to the fact that all passengers aboard the flight departing from New York to Charlotte survived and were safely rescued from the Hudson River.

The remarkable landing, better known as the “Miracle on the Hudson,” pilot of the plane Captain Sully, who has become a national hero, and survivors who the majority of them live and work in Charlotte, have constantly been receiving media coverage due to the unbelievable nature of the landing and the near-death experience of survivors.

This event is a memorable one that will have historical significance for many years to come and even bigger inspirational messages to be told by survivors.

While the incident has been going through required investigations, the aircraft is now owned by an insurance company, is being stored in the New York area, and has recently been put on the auction block pending a finalized investigation.

This aircraft, with its huge popularity, is a tremendous tourism magnet waiting to happen and I have had the pleasure of working with the leadership of the Carolinas Aviation Museum to give Charlotte the opportunity of bringing Flight 1549 here. There have been numerous other cities and museums that are interested in capturing this treasure, but, as was with the case of the NASCAR Hall of Fame belonging to Charlotte, we have been relentless in working towards bringing the aircraft as a magnificent exhibit to Charlotte, which is where it was supposed to go.

Timing could not be more perfect for Charlotte to be the home for exhibiting the miraculous Flight 1549 due to the fact that we, as an organization (Greater Charlotte Hospitality & Tourism Alliance), have also been working with our aviation museum towards expansion of their facilities and are proud to let you know that Charlotte is about ready to have a major aviation museum. It will be ready to open by July.

Our existing Carolinas Aviation Museum (www.carolinasaviation.org), which was founded in 1992, has been displaying a collection of more than 50 historic aircrafts such as B-175, B-245, B-29, and many other historic items related to aviation in North and South Carolina, a flying Piedmont Airline DC3, and the best site to watch planes land and take off.

While the museum, which is located on the grounds of Charlotte Douglas International Airport (off Morris Field Drive), has been a nice visitors destination, it is not large and efficient enough to accommodate new aircrafts and exhibits to make it a major aviation museum. Well, that is about to change rapidly as the process has already begun to move the entire museum contents and operation to a great new neighboring location on the airport grounds with two indoor hangers totaling more than 50,000 square feet in space.

Stay tuned and get ready to be amazed with this new museum, which could perfectly accommodate Flight 1549 as an exhibit and should be its home. We’re working tirelessly to make that happen and I ask you to please contact me (mjenatian@charlottehta.com) if you need more information or would like to be involved with this exciting development.