It's one of the most miraculous emergency landings in Chinese civil aviation history as the plane lost most of its automated controls and the co-pilot was sucked out of the plane due to sudden decompression.

Liu managed to regain control of the plane and made a successful landing in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, saving all 128 people on board, including nine crew members.

Lau recalls seeing the news story when it broke, and last September, he received a phone call from Yu Dong, president of the Bona Film Group, inviting him to be the director of the film adaptation of Liu's story, but he was surprised by the yearlong deadline for the film's release.

"Usually a film like this would take two years to shoot and make, including the postproduction period, which normally takes a year," says Lau.

After accepting the challenge, he immediately started to prepare the script and study the special effects. Shooting started on Jan 3 and took another three months to finish. The details of how the crew members operated the plane gained the appreciation of civil aviation authorities. Lau says his team interviewed and consulted different people at both airports, including staff members of control towers and runways.