On January 15th, 2009 Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger led a crew that crash landed in the icy Hudson River an Airbus A320. A bird strike shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia had crippled both engines of US Airways Flight 1549 . Sully had seconds to react–could he to return to LaGuardia in time or did he need to land some where else? He realized quickly the only option was a dramatic water landing in the Hudson.
Category: In The News
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Can Sully Transform the World of Self-Driving Cars?
Lost in the putrid cloud of self-driving car clickbait, the Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee on Automation in Transportation held its first meeting on January 16th, 2017. One look at its members is all it takes to know whose lobbying dollars hold sway in Washington. The largest constituency? A bloc including Apple, Amazon, Lyft, Uber, Waymo and Zoox, all of whom profit from you losing your steering wheel as soon as possible. They may cite safety, but there is only one objective voice on the panel, a man with true life and death experience at the intersection of human skill and automation:
Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.
In a world where political hacks and “experts” are increasingly replacing those with real-world experience, Sully’s inclusion on the panel is a revelation. Best known for The Miracle on the Hudson, Sully’s entire career has been devoted to safety. Look past the mythology, and his is the story of the opportunity, danger and cost inherent to sacrificing skilled humans on the altar of automation. Sully has written and spoken extensively on the criticality of training and compensation for airline pilots, and his insights have clear applications to the future of the trucking industry.
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What Chesley Sullenberger Never Travels Without
Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III is best known for his successful landing of a US Airways plane on the Hudson River in 2009, an event depicted in the Clint Eastwood-directed film “Sully,” now in theaters. Captain Sullenberger is currently the aviation and safety expert for CBS News, and he travels around the world speaking on topics related to airline safety and standards.
When flying for work, he’s mostly in the passenger seat. “I still fly myself privately on short-range business and family trips, but I’m on the major airlines all the time,” he said. Now retired from his job as a pilot with US Airways, when he flies commercial he has no particular favorite airline. “I travel on whoever has a flight going where I want to go, when I want to go, nonstop, with the largest airplane I can get on. That’s my strategy. Bigger airplanes, with two aisles instead of one, provide a better experience overall, and I think it’s more comfortable.”Captain Sullenberger has a couple of tips for travelers. To start with, don’t take more than you need. “That makes it easier for everyone. As an airline family we’ve been through Europe with one roll-aboard apiece for a week. You just have to pack intelligently and mix and match.” He also recommends flying early in the day. “Especially in the summer time before the thunderstorms develop and the weather becomes more of a factor. If you take one of the first flights out in the morning, typically the airplane and the crew have arrived the night before. When you’re not waiting on an inbound flight, there are fewer delays.”
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‘Miracle on the Hudson’ pilot Sully Sullenberger talks fame, duty with ABC7’s Dan Ashley
Thursday, October 13, 2016 08:00PM
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — One of the hottest movies to hit theaters in months takes the amazing story of a Bay Area man from your television to the big screen.“Sully,” starring Tom Hanks, dramatizes not only the so-called “Miracle on the Hudson,” but the untold story of what happened after Captain Sully Sullenberger landed that plane on the water. The landing was one wild ride– and so is everything that’s happened to Sully since.
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New Film Highlights Hero Pilot’s Running
In the trailer for Sully that first aired in the summer, Tom Hanks, starring as Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, goes for a run through Times Square. The real Sully, who in January 2009 made a safe emergency landing of a US Airways A320 Airbus onto the Hudson River, says director Clint Eastwood wanted to emphasize his passion for running in the film.
“It was something Clint liked because it literally keeps the story moving,” Sullenberger said. “I’m no cinematographer, but I think it keeps the viewer engaged with the story.”
Sullenberger started running in 1980 after he left the Air Force as an officer and fighter pilot and was beginning his career as a commercial airline pilot. He said he had never been interested in running races, but at his peak he ran 10 miles a day and rarely took a day off. During his 30-year career with US Airways and its predecessors—Sullenberger retired in 2010—that often meant running in various cities during layovers, and he’d frequently recruit copilots to join him.
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Heroes Among Us: Tom Hanks Plays Real-Life Hero Airline Pilot ‘Sully’
On Jan. 15, 2009, on a chilly Manhattan day, the city covered in a light dusting of snow and with temperatures hovering around 20 degrees, the world watched a miracle unfold in real time, minute by harrowing minute.
US Airways Flight 1549 en route to Charlotte, N.C., with both engines disabled, careened low past the Manhattan skyline, seemingly destined for a tragic fatal ending from what many feared was another terrorist attack. This time, however, the culprits were birds, which had struck the plane.
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Tom Hanks, Chesley Sullenberger Hail ‘Common Humanity’ of Clint Eastwood’s ‘Sully’
Clint Eastwood’s latest movie, “Sully,” is landing at an opportune time for feel-good entertainment.
The picture, centering on the 2009 miracle landing of a U.S. Airways jetliner on the frigid Hudson River in New York City after the plane ran into a flock of geese, is more unapologetically optimistic than anything the 86-year-old veteran filmmaker has directed in recent memory.