Chesley B. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger III-a hero
By on
January 16th, 2009
Passengers on the US Airways flight that crash-landed into the Hudson River Thursday afternoon praised the actions and courage of the pilot, a safety consultant with 40 years of experience in the aviation industry.
The pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who gave passengers the chilling command “brace for impact” was Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, a 29-year veteran of the airline.
Captain Sullenberger, 58, served as a US Air Force fighter pilot from 1973 to 1980 and has also acted as an instructor and safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots’ Association.
He once wrote a paper with Nasa scientists on “errorinducing contexts in aviation”. Two years ago he started his own consulting business, Safety Reliability Methods Inc.
Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York — himself an experienced pilot — said that the captain had insisted on being the last to “abandon ship” after the emergency landing.
“It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job in landing the plane in the river and then making sure nobody else was left on board,” Mr Bloomberg said.
“I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everyone else got off and tried to verify there was nobody else on board.
“I also talked to a passenger who said he was the last one up the aisle and that he made sure there was nobody behind him.”
Fred Berretta, one of the survivors, praised the pilot. “It was an incredible execution. He was very calm and made a great landing,” he told CNN. “I was one of the last ones off the plane. I saw the pilot and some of the flight crew and I looked back and saw nobody else.”
Survivors described with amazement how one moment they were flying to Charlotte, North Carolina, and the next they were floating in the Hudson just off the Theatre District in Manhattan.
The Airbus A320 was six minutes out of LaGuardia airport with 150 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board when it suddenly shook and caught fire.
“I was sitting in 22A. The left engine just blew. Fire, flames, came out of it. I was looking right at it because I was sitting right there,” said Mr Kolodjay, another survivor.
“It just started smelling a lot like gasoline. A couple of minutes after that the pilot said ‘you guys have got to brace yourself for hard impact’.
Alberto Panero, another passenger, told CNN: “We heard a loud bang. The plane shook a bit. You could smell, like, smoke, like fire. Immediately, the plane just started turning in another direction. It did not seem it was out of control. We knew something was going on. We were turning back.
“All of a sudden the captain came on and said ‘brace for impact’. That was the only thing that was said. Immediately, some people started . . . it was not really yelling. It was a mixed emotion of yelling and crying. For the most part it was really quiet.
“I pretty much just said to myself OK, I guess this is it. Let’s do it. It felt just like a car crash.”
Office workers in the skyscrapers of Manhattan saw the jet land slowly on the water at a gentle angle, without its undercarriage down. Some took pictures.
Captain Sullenberger avoided the chief peril of a water landing by not allowing the wings to dip into the waves, which can cause the aircraft to cartwheel, experts said. As water gushed into the fuselage, passengers grabbed lifejackets or their buoyant seats and climbed out into liferafts or on to the wings.
In the city, televisions in offices switched to news reports as workers gather round screens to watch the drama that was occurring just outside their buildings.
Stiro Katehs and his father witnessed the emergency landing as they drove down 77th Street. “My father said: ‘Look, there’s a plane falling’. It was gliding, gliding, gliding, then it hit the water at Pier 83. When it hit the water it erupted just like a volcano,” Mr Katehs told The Times.
“It hit the water in the Hudson at the end of 47th Street and has now floated down as far as 40th Street.”
Sirens filled the air as dozens of fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles raced across Manhattan. Workers from offices, restaurants and shops poured down the promenade beside the Hudson — some still wearing aprons and chef’s whites.
Ferry boats that ply the river between Manhattan and New Jersey immediately steamed to the scene to rescue survivors. Passengers were stretchered out, appearing unbloodied, but shivering and suffering from exposure.
“I’m wet from my waist down; it’s a little cold in New York right now,” Mr Kolodjay told The Times.
“It was really scary; the plane filled with water really quick. The guys on the plane did a great job of getting women and children off first. Kudos to the pilot and kudos to the people who got us off the boats.”
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