Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger: US Airways pilot as national hero

Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger: Commercial aviation pilot as national hero after successful landing of US Airways flight in Hudson River after losing both engines

In spite of Captain Chesley Sullenberger III, 57, keeping a low profile and also keeping cool about it all, he is being repeatedly described as the ‘Hero of Hudson’ for having landed safely, with uncommon ease and presence of mind, the US Airways flight on the icy Hudson River.

Chesley B Sullenberger US Airways flight Hudson river landing hero

According to reports available so far, both engines of the flight, an Airbus A320 carrying 150 passengers and four crew members, had been disabled after hitting a flock of birds on January 15, 2009.

Even after landing his plane on the Hudson River, off New York, the United States, Captain Sullenberger, known as Chesley B ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, kept himself busy supervising the escape of all 150 passengers and four crew members even as the plane was sinking slowly.

Media reports in the US said Sullenberger walked the entire length of the aircraft twice to make ensure that no single person was left behind.

The website guardian.co.uk quoted one of the first rescuers on the scene in the Hudson River as remarking that Sullenberger had seemed “impervious to the chaos around him” and that he looked “absolutely immaculate; he looked like David Niven in an airplane uniform; he looked unruffled.”
Reports also quoted air traffic controllers as commenting that there was an “eerie calm” about the cockpit communications as options to save the plane and its passengers shrank after both engines of the US Airways plane failed.

The world over, and especially in the United States, Captain Sullenberger has become an instant hero for having accomplished what airline pilots call “textbook ditching” – in this case, emergency landing in water in time of distress. Particularly being lauded is the calm, deft response showed by the former pilot of the US Air Force in the face of calamity.

Sullenberger, who hails from Danville, California, the United States, is a veteran with 40 years’ experience in aviation and about 20,000 flight hours in jet planes, propeller planes and gliders.

Before starting his civilian career, Captain Sullenberger used to fly F-4 fighter jets in the US Air Force.

Now, besides flying planes for US Airways, the low-cost airline headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, the United States, he gives speeches on aviation safety and his interests include studying “the psychology of how teams cope in an emergency.”

Sullenberger’s newly created page on Facebook has been flooded with compliments from almost all quarters, almost turning him a hero overnight.

US media quoted David Paterson, Governor of New York, as saying that an anonymous person had offered to donate $10,000 (£680) towards building a statue to the brave pilot.

Sullenberger is the founder and chief executive officer of an aviation safety company named Safety Reliability Methods, a consulting firm that “provides expert solutions to complex problems involving safety, high performance and high reliability.”

Acording to the website of Safety Reliability Methods, Captain Sullenberger has served as an instructor as well as the Air Line Pilots Association’s safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member. He has participated in several accident investigations conudcted by the US Air Force and by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The Safety Reliability Methods’ website safetyreliability.com says that Captain Sullenberger’s safety work at the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) led to the development of a US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular. He has also co-authored, working with the scientists of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a paper on error-inducing contexts in aviation.

The website goes on to say that Captain Sullenberger was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Crew Resource Management (CRM) course which is used at US Airways, where he works, and has taught the course to hundreds of his colleagues. He is a graduate of the US Air Force Academy (B.S.), Purdue University (M.S.) and the University of Northern Colorado (M.A.), according to the Safety Reliability Methods’ website.