In 2009, Kari Sorenson and his now-fiancee Ashley Harrison arrived at their friend’s Easter dinner in a state of shock. When they explained the reason for their delay, the other guests were also shocked.
An hour earlier, Sorenson had received a call from former Danbury Municipal Airport colleague Dan Favio – and it wasn’t the “Happy Easter” greeting he was expecting. Favio worked shifts as an air traffic controller at Fort Myers International Airport. A family of four were flying on a King Air 200 from Marco Island, Fla., to their home in Monroe, Louisiana, when the pilot suffered sudden cardiac death mid-flight.
The father, Louisiana pharmacist Doug White, had accumulated 150 hours of flying experience in a simpler, smaller aircraft, so Favio needed Sorenson’s King Air know-how to pass instructions to White, the new unexpected pilot. Harrison dug up Sorenson’s old manuals and a 22-minute phone game ensued that eventually led White – from 1,000 miles away at Danbury – to a safe landing with less than 10% chance of survival.
“Wait what?” said one of her friends. “When did this happen? Is this a movie?”
is that now Amazon Prime Video’s “On a Wing and a Prayer,” out April 7, follows the real-life “Easter Miracle,” which sees White (Dennis Quaid) and his wife, Terri (Heather Graham), head out for this Easter weekend with the two of them teenage daughters, Maggie and Bailey.
Dennis Quaid and Heather Graham as Doug and Terri White in On A Wing And A Prayer.
Boris Martin/Boris Martin/Prime Video
Hollywood’s take on the “Easter Miracle”
Seeing those moments from the family’s perspective 14 years later evoked a wide range of heavy and familiar emotions and memories, as well as some new ones, Sorenson and Harrison said. They understood the fear the family felt when disaster struck and felt the joyful relief that their lives were being saved.
It’s “hard to put down a tissue during the movie,” Harrison said; When she first saw the trailer, she choked. “We saw Maggie and Bailey. They got married and now they have children of their own. And to see the family growing up happily and now to see their little girls starting to grow up is just a good feeling,” she said.
“It’s certainly a film of hope,” Sorenson added.
Sorenson never elaborated on how tragic the story could have ended; He looks back at the event from a pragmatic point of view, analyzing all the parts that contributed to the outcome. It wasn’t until he saw the trailer for On a Wing and a Prayer more than a decade later that he realized the seriousness of the situation.
“It’s extremely difficult to describe because we were all very clinical throughout the process. The controllers had a job to do, and I had a job to do, and we all did it well together,” Sorenson said. “And then it kind of brought back this flashback of ‘holy cow, it could have ended differently.’”
Unfortunately, Sorenson is no stranger to the dangers of flying. Raised in Colorado, he took up flying at an early age because his father was a pilot. In 1981, when he was a teenager, his father died in a plane crash in White Plains, New York. In 1996, his stepfather was one of 230 people killed when TWA Flight 800 exploded and crashed off Long Island. Still pursuing a career as an aviator, he began learning to fly at Danbury in 1989, ranging from single-engine aircraft to Gulfstream V-Jets. By 2009, he had logged 3,500 hours in a King Air and gave up a professional flying career to spend more time with his daughter.
Harrison, a third-generation pilot and a native of Stamford, began dating Sorenson in 2008 while he was working for a White Plains flight school. In 2015 they became business partners.
Kari Sorenson in the cockpit of a King Air 350 at Danbury Municipal Airport in Danbury, Connecticut on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Sorenson helped a passenger, Doug White, land a twin-engine plane at Southwest Florida International Airport after the pilot died trying to escape and saved four people at Easter 2009.
Bryan Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media
Jesse Metcalfe in On a Wing and a Prayer. DSC_0103.nef
Boris Martin/Boris Martin/Prime Video
Actor Jesse Metcalfe (right) plays Danbury pilot Kari Sorenson (left) in the Amazon film On a Wing and a Prayer. (Photos: Bryan Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media; Boris Martin/Prime Video) Bryan Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media; Boris Martin/Prime Video
Sorenson in the film will be played by Connecticut-raised actor and John Tucker Must Die star Jesse Metcalfe. Harrison is played by television actress Anna Enger Ritch. Metcalfe, who grew up in Waterford and now lives in East Lyme, has never spoken to Sorenson (although Sorenson has offered to take him flying at some point). To prepare for the role, he relied on written and video interviews.
“[Sorenson] didn’t pretend to be a hero; He just acted like he was in the right place at the right time to do the right thing,” Metcalfe said in a video interview. “But in the world of our script, it looks like it would be a cathartic experience for him to be able to help save the White family. And he was able to exercise some of the demons he lived with after losing his father and stepfather in plane crashes.”
“I think what he did is more heroic than he gives himself credit for,” he added.
When asked if his father would be proud, Sorenson said, “My mother seems very proud. Yes.” Pause. “My father would be.”
The film was made about 10 years ago when screenwriter Brian Egeston, an aviation enthusiast who listened to White’s tapes during flight lessons, approached Harrison and Sorenson with the idea for the film. Aside from reading the original script and answering some clarifying questions, they didn’t know what to expect from the film.
Overall, it was mostly accurate, Sorenson said, although some parts were altered or embellished for dramatic effect. For example, one clip shows White flying the plane while thunder and lightning flash in the background; during the actual event the sky was blue and sunny. In the film, Sorenson speaks to White on the phone, but they never spoke directly to each other.
“[Hollywood] also has a task. Their job is to sell movies,” Sorenson said nonchalantly.
Kari Sorenson stands in front of his 1946 J-3 Piper Cub at Danbury Municipal Airport in Danbury, Connecticut on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Sorenson helped a passenger, Doug White, land a twin-engine plane at Southwest Florida International Airport after the pilot died in flight, saving four people on Easter 2009.
Bryan Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media
Fourteen years later in Danbury
Sorenson and Harrison’s office is at Danbury Municipal Airport, where they have operated Tally-Ho Aviation, an aircraft maintenance company, together for several years.
Their workplace is a 250-acre site consisting of two runways and several hangars. The two wore jeans, glasses and Tally Ho aviation uniforms on a March afternoon. Scattered around the hangar were tools and small planes of various colors and sizes that they repair and fly every day.
In one of the hangars is a 1,050 hp King Air similar to the one that White flew. It’s just big enough to squeeze in eight passenger seats, and the cockpit has two controllers or two motors. As of Easter Sunday 2009, Sorenson advised White to fly it like a single-engine airplane.
The tail of Kari Sorenson’s 1946 J-3 Piper Cub at Danbury Municipal Airport in Danbury, Connecticut on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Sorenson was helping a passenger, Doug White, to land a twin-engine airplane at Southwest Florida International Airport after the pilot died in flight and saved four people at Easter 2009.
Bryan Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media
“I flew the plane in my mind. So I had certain phases that I had to go through,” he said. “He’s coming down 10,000 feet, so he’s 30 miles away. Okay, then this has to happen.”
Sorenson and Harrison first met White in March 2010. A few years later, White visited Danbury. This time he flew to the airport by plane.
Favio, now an air traffic control specialist with the Federal Aviation Administration, worked in the control tower at Danbury Municipal Airport in 2006-07 while Sorenson served as the company pilot, and the two became instant friends. This Easter day was not her first crisis; They worked together during the Danbury airport fire in 2007. Favio describes Sorenson as “without a doubt one of the smartest people I’ve ever met”.
As they entered the hangar, a colleague greeted Sorenson and Harrison. “Don’t they make a movie about you?”
“Didn’t you see the preview?” Sorenson replied.
“You’re going to extend this to an hour and a half?”
“One hour and 42!”
Kari Sorenson and fiancee Ashley Harrison in the cockpit of a King Air 350 at Danbury Municipal Airport in Danbury, Connecticut on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Sorenson helped a passenger, Doug White, land a twin-engine airplane at Southwest Florida International Airport after the Pilot died in flight, saving four people on Easter 2009.
Bryan Haeffele / Hearst Connecticut Media
Sharing the film with their friends from across the country is the best part of the whole experience for Sorenson and Harrison. One of those close friends is Favio, who is happy for air traffic controllers to get their moment to shine.
“Our jobs and what we say and so on, that’s important. If we make a mistake, we’re putting lives at risk,” he said. “But I can honestly look back and say that at least once in my career I’ve been able to be a part of something and help save a family’s life. And I will always be proud of that.”
But as Metcalfe assumed, he and Sorenson don’t see each other as heroes. Instead, Sorenson attributes the result to an external force. There must be divine intervention in some way, regardless of one’s religion, he said. All the necessary parts were perfectly lined up that Sunday. He specifically mentions Favio’s phone.
After Favio went to work that day, his phone went dead in the middle of the next call and he lost all of his personal phone numbers. He hadn’t memorized Sorenson’s number. If it had died a day earlier, Favio would not have known how to contact him. But that’s not how the story ended.
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