Recreating the dramatic ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River would be a challenge for any film-maker. But Sully: Miracle on the Hudson director Clint Eastwood had a head start. After all, he’d once survived a crash.

Many directors call upon their own experiences when recreating key moments in their movies. But few of them would have much in their personal histories to help when it came to recreating the final moments of US Airways Flight 1549 which, after a bird-strike destroyed both its engines, ditched in the Hudson river with the miraculous survival, virtually unscathed, of all 155 passengers and crew.

Apart, that is, from Clint Eastwood whose latest film, Sully: Miracle on the Hudson, a dramatic account both of the forced landing and its aftermath starring Tom Hanks as the heroic pilot, is heavily tipped for major awards. Eastwood has experienced a lot in his 86 years. Including, it turns out, surviving a dramatic air-crash that happened early in the Hollywood legend’s life.

I suppose having been in a similar situation as the pilot I would have chanced a water landing rather than go someplace where there’s no runway Clint Eastwood

As a 21-year-old soldier in the US Army Eastwood was a passenger on a Second World War-era navy bomber when it ditched and he found himself having to swim to shore. “I was catching a free ride from Seattle down to Almeda,” he says of the events of 60-odd years ago.

“It was stormy and we went down off of Point Reyes, California, in the Pacific. I found myself in the water swimming a few miles towards the shore. I remember thinking, ‘well, 21 is not as long as a person wants to live’.”

Eastwood spent several hours in the Pacific, fighting through kelp beds and finally scrambling up a cliff to a radio relay tower in Bolinas to safety.

Though he says that these events didn’t particularly figure in his decision to make the film, it did give him a unique insight both into the experiences of the passengers and crew, and the vital split-second decisions of Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger – decisions that were later challenged by the authorities, much to Eastwood’s annoyance.

At the helm: Eastwood with Tom Hanks Credit: Rex Features

“I suppose having been in a similar situation as the pilot I would have chanced a water landing rather than go someplace where there’s no runway,” he says. “And of course Sully was familiar with that area. He knew where the helicopter ports and ferryboats were, so he picked the right spot, where everyone could get to them fast. It wouldn’t be like being out in the middle of the ocean. He knew that somebody would see them.”

When it came to recreating the dramatic ditching and, just as importantly, the speedy rescue of passengers and crew from the Hudson, Eastwood turned to his long-time collaborators, cinematographer Tom Stern and production designer James J Murakami.

Murakami meticulously recreated the Airbus A320’s flight deck on a soundstage in Los Angeles which he mounted on a gimbal – a pivoted support – allowing the set to mimic the movements of the plane in real time while in New York Tom Stern considered the option of building a mock-up of the fuselage and putting it in the Hudson.

This idea was scotched when he was advised that the currents would rip the set apart. Instead digital effects were used for long shots of the plane in the water, and integrated with live action of the rescuers and onlookers, which Stern shot on IMAX cameras.

Perfect partners: Sully is the 43rd collaboration between Eastwood and Warner Bros. Credit: © 2015 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

In Los Angeles Eastwood shot on a real Airbus parked in a tank at neighbouring studio Universal and mounted on a 350-ton gimbal surrounded by 200ft of blue-sky backing for the interior and close-up shots. There Stern used five cameras, shooting simultaneously, for the evacuation sequence which Eastwood didn’t rehearse in order better to capture the immediacy of the events shortly after Flight 1549 made its unscheduled water landing.

But for Eastwood it was what happened afterwards, particularly to Captain Sullenberger, that fascinated him as much as the dramatic events of the day itself. “Anybody who keeps their wits about them when things are going wrong, who can negotiate problems without panicking, is someone of superior character, and interesting to watch on film,” he says.

“But for me the real conflict came after, with the investigative board questioning his decisions, even though he had saved so many lives.”

• Sully: Miracle on the Hudson is in cinemas from 2 December. Go to the Sully: Miracle on the Hudson official site for more information