But Fundraising DC-7 Flight To Charlotte Not Without Problems

Some of the passengers from US Airways Flight 1549 got back into an airplane with Captain Chesley Sullenberger and First Officer Jeffrey Skiles Friday, but this time it wasn't an Airbus, and it wasn't flying over the Hudson River.

Sully and Skiles had agreed to pilot a 1958 DC-7 (photo: Facebook) once flown by Eastern Airlines from Miami's Opa-Locka Executive Airport into Charlotte Douglas International, where it was displayed for a while at the Carolinas Aviation Museum. Charlotte happens to be the intended destination of the famous Flight 1549 which became better known as "The Miracle on the Hudson."

Tickets for the flight with Sully and Skiles cost $1,000, part of a fund-raiser for the Historical Flight Foundation, which restored the DC-7. The 40 passengers on the trip from Miami to Charlotte included former Flight 1549 passengers and other aviation buffs. The foundation has also scheduled other flights aboard the vintage airliner.

Charlotte's WCNC-TV reports that after the landing at Charlotte, some oil was leaking from one of the plane's four engines, and mechanics administered some TLC. Tickets for the return flight to Miami cost $375, and a fresh crew replaced Sully and Skiles. But after takeoff for the trip back to Miami with 55 passengers onboard, the DC-7 had another engine problem and returned to Charlotte trailing smoke. The landing was described by passengers as smooth.

The foundation was reportedly looking Friday for a tour bus to get the passengers back to Florida, but Charlotte's WBTV reports some chose to spend the night in Charlotte, while others caught commercial flights home.

FMI: www.historicalflightfoundation.com