Toms Hanks, cast of 'Sully' attend movie premiere in NYC

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A big Tom Hanks movie premiere was held Tuesday night in New York that hits close to home.

First responders and survivors of the "Miracle on the Hudson" U.S. Airways landing were all in attendance at Lincoln Center.

It was among the most memorable landings in the history of flying.

Called "The Miracle on the Hudson", the captain was hailed as a hero for bringing his airliner down with no loss of life as dramatized in a new movie opening Friday.

"We all knew that he did it, OK that's great. The thing that was eye-opening, I couldn't believe it, I had the optical poptitude of it, was everything that happened afterwards. I did not know," said Tom Hanks, actor.

Hanks stars as Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger who was cheered by the public, but faced hostile questions and second guessing by government investigators in the months after January 15, 2009.

In the end, Captain Sullenberger was completely exonerated, and holds no grudge about what happened, even though doubts were being raised while he suffered Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

It is this backstory which fascinated director Clint Eastwood, who was determined to make his film as realistic as possible by using some of the real people who came to the rescue that day.

"The New York first responders are a big part of this story because the success of this story was getting there on time because that plane wasn't going to float forever," Eastwood said.

"This is a New York story. It's an American story. It's actually a worldwide story of heroism of knowing what to do, of grace under pressure and getting them home alive," said Aaron Eckhart, actor.