Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River after birds interfered with the engine (actually, the USA Today article says “the plane’s engines were struck by birds,” making the birds out to be terrorists or implying that someone shot the birds at the plane with an air rifle), is retiring today. Sully, age 59, has been flying with US Airways and their “predecessor,” presumably Allegheny, since 1980.
As Sully is not only an aviation hero, but one of the few people to have made the news in the past two years without having an affair with a stripper or releasing an album, allow us to say: well done, sir.
If you want to relive the events of Flight 1549 last January, a potentially catastrophic event which everyone survived, except for the birds, visit these stories below:
- Breaking: US Airways flight 1549 crashes into the Hudson River
- US Airways check already in the mail
- Spirit Airlines attempts to collect a cancellation fee off flight 1549 passengers
- US Airways flight 1549 pilot receives hero’s welcome in hometown
- So how do we get that Airbus 320 out of the Hudson River?
- Sharks circling Hudson landing
- “Hero on the Hudson” – Play it on Gadling!
- FAA releases US Airways flight 1549 ATC transcripts
- Plane answers: Why Captain Sullenberger and his crew deserve the hero status
- Big surprise: Lawsuits could be on the horizon in US Airways flight 1549 accident
- Hero pilot who landed on Hudson turning into a real jerk
- Chesley Sullenberger of Hudson River plane landing fame touts new book on The Daily Show
Still can’t get enough? Buy his book, Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters and help fill those retirement coffers.
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