The front page story in today's Daily Mirror is about the plane which crash-landed in the Hudson river in New York. Fortunately, everyone survived. The headline reads: "ON A WING AND A PRAYER". The passengers waited for rescue on the wing of the plane and no doubt many of them said prayers before—and after—the crash, but "on a wing and a prayer" is also a fixed expression which means that you’re in a desperate situation and you’re relying on hope to see you through.
Michael Quinion explains the origin of the phrase on his World Wide Words site:
It comes from a famous American World War Two patriotic song, with words by Harold Adamson and music by Jimmy McHugh. It tells the tale of a plane struggling home after a bombing raid:
Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer
What a show, what a fight
Boys, we really hit our target for tonight
How we sing as we limp through the air
Look below, there’s our field over there
Though there’s one motor gone
We can still carry on
Comin’ in on a wing and a prayer.
The song came out at the end of 1942 and instantly became a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic, so much so that the phrase almost immediately entered the language. (Source: World Wide Words)
