Things were looking bad for Flight 1549 out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport on cold winter day in 2009. At 3:24 p.m., just minutes after takeoff, the Airbus 320 flew straight into a flock of large birds. There were several loud noises. Then both of the engines died. In the cockpit, Captain Chesley B.Sullenberger noticed a sharp smell of burning feathers. The plane was only 3,000 feet (914 meters) in the air, and it had no power. They were going down.