Flight AA 242

A Pre-Confirmation Sermon on Acts 2: 42-47

Some say what happened between 3.27 and 3.31 on 15^th January 2009 was a miracle.  What happened during those three and a half short minutes was so incredible, seemed so unlikely, there was no other word for it.

Minutes before 3.27, US Airways flight AA 242 had taken off from LaGuardia airport in New York, bound for Charlotte, North Carolina.  It was a full flight with 150 passengers and five crew, including pilot Chelsey Sullenberger, or ‘Sully’.

Flight AA 242 had taken off on time.  Accelerating along one of LaGuardia’s twin runways, it reached a speed of 170 mph and began its ascent.

Sully contacted air traffic control, informed them he had reached an altitude of 700 ft and a speed of 230 mph, and he received clearance to continue to 15,000 ft.

It would be dangerous for one Canadian goose to be sucked into an engine.  It would be darn unlucky for two.  But at 3.27, over the Bronx, that plane hit a whole flock of geese.  The angle of the ascending plane and the speed of the geese in flight were just at right combination – a one in ten million chance – for the whole flock to be sucked into not one engine but both engines.

Both engines failed immediately.  The geese were instantaneously liquefied, turned to what air-crash investigators call ‘bird slurry’.  Eeeeuuughhh.

Pilot Sully contacts air traffic control.  ‘Mayday, mayday.  Hit birds.  Lost thrust in both engines.  Need emergency landing at LaGuardia.’

Air traffic control acted in seconds, clearing both runways.

3.28.  Sully glances at the controls and information on the flight deck.  No thrust.  Not enough altitude.  A turn and glide won’t get him to LaGuardia.

‘Air traffic control, air traffic control, do you read me?  LaGuardia not viable.  Requesting New Jersey.’

Air traffic control only takes seconds to reply: ‘Affirmative, turn right 8-2-0, land at runway one, Teterboro, New Jersey.’

But Sully’s mind is doing the sums, calculating the distances, the velocities, the forces and the angles.

‘Negative, Air Traffic Control, we’ll be in the Hudson River.’

‘Say again, say again?!’

3.28.  With no thrust, Sully begins the glide towards New York’s biggest river.  Between him and the landing spot is the George Washington Bridge.  Sullenberger clears the bridge with just feet to spare.

3.30.  Sully makes his only announcement to passengers: ‘Brace for impact – brace, brace!’

3.31.  Sully raises the nose of the plane.  He knows that, if the water is choppy and the wing tip touches a wave, the whole plane will cartwheel.  Travelling at 150 mph, with no power, no engines to counteract gravity, US flight AA242 completes an emergency landing on the River Hudson, just three and a half minutes after its take-off from LaGuardia.

Passengers remain calm.  Some swim away in the freezing water, others wait to be rescued by boat.

All 150 passengers and five crew are alive.  Around half are treated for minor injuries such as scratches and bruises, the rest are unharmed.

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So was it a miracle?

In a way, yes it was.  But I think there’s a better explanation for the amazing actions of pilot Sully.

You see, Sully had been in the skies for over 40 years.  Before that, he’d studied physics and mathematics.  Then he trained hard at aviation college.  He spent hours practising manoeuvres, in a simulator, day after day.  The habit stuck, and even after he got his pilot’s license, Sully continued to practice manoeuvres under all sorts of difficult conditions.

Sully didn’t save the day because of a bolt out of the blue.  It was the natural outcome of years of discipline.

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Our Bible reading tells us what the first Christians did.  They devoted themselves to four things: the apostles’ teaching, the fellowship, breaking bread together, and the prayers.  (Repeat and enumerate)

The apostles’ teaching.  The CofI is an apostolic church.  We trace our beginnings right back to those first Christians at Pentecost 2000 years ago, and we try to follow that same pattern.  Lots of things change, but the apostles’ teaching stays the same. 

The apostles – people like Matthew and John, Peter and Paul, wrote their teachings in the New Testament.  They are summarised in the Apostles’ Creed.

If you read the Bible regularly, and soak up its teachings, you never know when you might need a miracle – and all those years of reading the Bible will kick in, like Sully’s aviation training, and help you out in a crisis.

The second thing is fellowship.  Meeting together and sharing our lives.  The step of confirmation isn’t one to be taken alone, just like the rest of the Christian life is a life together.  You have the support of parents and godparents.  You have become a tight little group over the past year.  We’d love you to keep meeting together and supporting one another – perhaps at Xplore or Saturday Night Live.  And as part of the church, we want to see you at worship with all the Christian family, old and young, on a regular basis.

The third thing is breaking bread.  We need food on a long, challenging journey.  And Holy Communion sustains us on life’s journey.  Make a commitment to receive Holy Communion regularly.  The minimum really is once a month, just to stay spiritually alive.  To be spiritually healthy, more often is far better.

And finally, the prayers.  Not ‘prayer’ but ‘the prayers’.  The first Christians prayed set Jewish prayers in the Temple, morning and evening.  Soon, distinctive Christian prayers developed.

Pray every day.  Make it the habit of a lifetime.  There’s a simple form of daily prayer in the inside cover of the BCP.  You can download an app like Daily Prayer or Sacred Space.  You can use a booklet like Our Daily Bread.  Whatever works best for you – but do it daily.

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If you devote yourselves to these same disciplines as the first Christians, you’ll be like pilot Sully.

One day, there will be a crisis and you’ll need a miracle.  You’ll fail an exam, or not get the job you want.  You’ll make a big mistake and have regrets.  You’ll have a blazing row with your husband or wife.  You’ll lose someone you love very dearly.  These things happen to us all.

But if your life has been one devoted to the teachings of the Bible, taking part in church, Holy Communion and prayer, you’ll find that when the crisis comes, you know what to do.  Something inside you, someone inside you, will correct your course, keep you level, bring you to safety.