Continuity mistake: When Sully is boarding the aircraft the forward galley has catering in atlas boxes with no flight labels on, when they are done with the demo and the cabin crew secures the galley it has changed to a galley with doors and a boiler. (00:26:27 - 00:30:00)
Factual error: When Sully buys a sandwich, one of the magazines in shot is the September 2015 issue of Jaguar World. The scene is set in 2009. (00:27:00)
Other mistake: When Sully gets on the plane, his jacket / coat fall off the luggage he is pulling. Even the flight attendants do not realised what happened. (00:27:28)
Other mistake: During the F-4 emergency flashback, Nellis Tower has cleared them to land on Runway 21, however the runway is marked 22. (00:40:57 - 00:42:05)
Factual error: During the flashback to the F-4 flight emergency, the visuals are inconsistent with the dialogue: they are approaching runway 21, which has a runway heading of 205 to 214, and the visuals before the dialogue shows them lined up with the runway. The dialogue of Sully's back seater is "Heading 020, five miles out, sir." This is 170° away from the runway heading, almost the opposite direction. (00:41:31)
Factual error: In a scene, when the airplane passes the Manhattan skyline, you may well see in the middle of the skyline the "432 Park Avenue Building" built between 2013-2015, but the movie is set in 2009. (00:45:20)
Continuity mistake: A passenger has a New York Waterways life jacket long before the Thomas Jefferson (first New York Waterways ferry to arrive) has arrived. (00:49:15 - 00:55:14)
Continuity mistake: A girl in blue jumper is on the right of the passenger with golf hat. Next scene she is on the left of the passenger and his elderly father on a cell phone. (00:50:09)
Factual error: During the hearing where Sully and Skilles are listening to the recording of their conversations, we are given a flashback of the actual event. As the US Airways jet is taking off LaGuardia, we are briefly given a shot of the NYC skyline, with One World Trade Center appearing fully complete. One World Trade Center did not appear fully complete like this until mid-2013, and in 2009 (during the events of the film) construction on it had barely reached street level. (01:18:50)
Factual error: Scenes of the CGI Airbus A320 do not show the RAT (Ram Air Turbine) deployed. When the A320 loses power in both engines, the RAT automatically deploys to provide minimal electrical power to the plane. (01:20:05)
Continuity mistake: While Katie Couric is interviewing Sully, the first shot shows her with a portfolio in her hand and she is not wearing a ring on her left hand. The camera goes to Sully, then back to Katie and suddenly there is a ring on her left hand.
Factual error: During the evacuation scenes there are several scenes where there are leaves on the trees. This happened in January.
Continuity mistake: When they are evacuating passengers onto the ferry boat, a crew member puts his hat on a passenger in a white shirt. In the next shot and when he says that he is cold he is not wearing a hat. In the very next shot the hat is back on.
Continuity mistake: During passenger boarding the screen (Flight Attendant Panel), located above the forward flight attendant seats is a newer touchscreen one, but when flight attendants are doing safety demo, it changes to the older LED push button type.
Continuity mistake: When Captain Sullenberger is wading through the water towards to aft galley, you can see his pants soaked and the lower half of his short wet. When he returns to the cockpit to collect his jacket and clipboard, his clothes are dry. In all following scenes of the rescue, his clothes are dry.
Factual error: The NTSB was portrayed horribly in this movie. They investigate purely on facts, not going on witch hunts like this movie implies. In the movie they tried to "second guess" and "blame the pilot." This never happens in real life.
Suggested correction: The NTSB is, like any other organisation, is run by people with their own biases and imperfections.
This goes way beyond biases and imperfections. Sullenberger himself was disturbed by the way the NTSB investigators were depicted. Having reviewed an early draft of the script, he asked that their names be removed from the characters. According to Hanks, Sullenberger felt that the NTSB investigators were not prosecutors, and it was not fair to associate them with changes in the story to depict "more of a prosecutorial process." The film's version of the investigation is wildly inaccurate.
Factual error: If you look at the takeoff seen you can see an American Airlines 737 800 in the new livery despite this move taking place before American having their new livery.
Continuity mistake: When Sully is checking the aft for anyone left, the flight attendant calling him has a red life vest on. When the camera zooms in as she leaves, she doesn't. When she jumps onto the slide she has it on again.
Factual error: The movie showed the FAA HQ building. Then the next shot showed the NTSB Public Hearing Room. The NTSB is actually located around the corner in DC from the FAA. They are not in the same building.
Factual error: The cockpit voice recording is highly sensitive in nature. It would never be played in front of hundreds of people like in the movie.
