Two years after its new headquarters and hangars were officially inaugurated, Luxembourg Air Rescue was celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Launched in 1988 by René Closter and a group of like-minded friends, LAR has grown from an outfit with one rented helicopter to become one of the world’s leading air rescue services and air ambulance providers. As Closter likes to point out, there were plenty of battles along the way and he still questions the motivation of some fierce opponents of creating Luxembourg’s own air rescue service. But, as prime minister Xavier Bettel said in his opening remarks at the celebration, membership of 180,000 proves that there was and remains a need for the service.

Jeff Skiles took his audience--including Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa --through the 30 or so minutes of the Miracle on the Hudson flight famously portrayed in Clint Eastwood’s film “Sully”. Skiles, looking every bit like an older Aaron Eckhart, put us in the jump seat as he set the scene, describing take-off at LaGuardia Airport via the plane being struck by a flock of geese that knocked out both engines, to ditching on the Hudson River and the rescue of all 150 souls aboard the aircraft by river boats.

He spoke about the preparedness of the crew to work as a team, even though they had never previously flown together, of the need to follow checks and procedures, of the instinctive but rational decision making of chief pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the immense skill and luck involved in the ditching, and the calmness under pressure that both the cockpit and cabin crew, and the passengers, displayed throughout.