On this day in 2009, a potential disaster turned into a heroic display of skill and composure when Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III safely landed the plane he was piloting on New York City’s Hudson River after a bird strike caused its engines to fail. David Paterson, governor of New York at the time, dubbed the incident the “miracle on the Hudson.” Sullenberger, a former fighter pilot with decades of flying experience, received a slew of honors for his actions, including an invitation to Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration and resolutions of praise from the U.S. Congress.
About a minute after taking off from New York’s La Guardia Airport on January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 collided with one of the aviation industry’s most threatening foes: a flock of geese. Crippled by the bird strike, both engines lost power and went quiet, forcing Captain Sullenberger to make an emergency landing. When air traffic controllers instructed the seasoned pilot to head for nearby Teterboro Airport, he calmly informed them that he was “unable” to reach a runway. “We’re gonna be in the Hudson,” he said simply, and then told the 150 terrified passengers and five crew members on board to brace for impact.
Ninety seconds later, Sullenberger glided the Airbus 320 over the George Washington Bridge and onto the chilly surface of the Hudson River, where it splashed down midway between Manhattan and New Jersey. As flight attendants ushered passengers into life jackets, through emergency exits and onto the waterlogged wings of the bobbing jet, a flotilla of commuter ferries, sightseeing boats and rescue vessels hastened to the scene. One survivor suffered two broken legs and others were treated for minor injuries or hypothermia, but no fatalities occurred. After walking up and down the aisle twice to ensure a complete evacuation, Sullenberger was the last to leave the sinking plane.
In October 2009, the now-famous pilot, known to his friends as “Sully,” published a book about his childhood, military background and career entitled “Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters.” He retired from US Airways after 30 years in the airline industry on March 3, 2010, and has since devoted his time to consulting, public speaking and advocating for aviation safety.
Old white guy pilots every time!
Most people of reasonable intelligence can be taught to take off , fly and land modern aircraft until something goes critically wrong , that’s where a highly trained experienced pilot comes in like Sully .
Remember this his cool calm demeanor in a serious tragic situation his training and experience is why the company lost an aircraft but no passengers and crew . Now also remember the federal ass wipes involved tried to hang him with a true bull shit claim that could only come from people working in federal government “two simulator crews landed the plane” !
When the truth finally surfaced one crew landed after 17 attempts and the other after 22 attempts Captain Sullenberger only had one shot and he followed what he knew to be the best course of action quite literally in thinking on the fly in split seconds .
I think that speaks volumes regarding what ever federal agencies were involved in the investigation and probably many of them should be listed as non essential !
In the image linked below, the red line shows the route to Teterboro, had Sully followed the tower’s instruction. The photo shows the congested suburb the plane would have hit had they not made it to Teterboro. Sully’s quick judgment quite likley prevented a major catastrophe.
We don’t hear or see much of Sully anymore. Yeah, there was the movie which was hyped just enough to make millions for Hollywood, but that’s about it. Just imagine if the pilot had been a black lesbian rather than a quiet, conservative, competent old white guy.
“We don’t hear or see much of Sully anymore. ”
Headline —-> “‘Sully’ Sullenberger, hero pilot, shreds Trump, GOP: ‘This is not the America I know'”
Here —-> https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/oct/30/sully-sullenberger-hero-pilot-shreds-trump-gop-not/
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God bless Sully for his actions which saved many lives.
God damn him for everything else.
The less we hear from Sully the Sulker, the better.
What do you think the headline would read if Sully had said Trump was doing a great job? Yeah, it’s a trick question, because there wouldn’t be a headline. Hey, maybe the guy was running low on money and was made a deal he couldn’t refuse?
Sully’s calm and quick thinking under extreme pressure belie the joke I heard about cockpit automation but I’ll share it anyway:
Future airliners will have a pilot and a dog in the cockpit.
The pilot’s job is to monitor what is going on.
The dog’s job is to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything.
An important point not touched on in this otherwise accurate post, is the importance of Sully’s copilot, Jeff Skiles.
He was as experienced and competent as Sully, and it was a team effort that succeeded, not a one-man show.
I heard them both give a talk about their impressive ordeal at the big airshow in Oshkosh, WI, and was every bit as impressed with Skiles as with Sully.