Chesley Sullenberger III: The Hudson Hero

Some are calling it a miracle on the Hudson -- I think it's the work of an excellent pilot. Here's more on Captain "Sully":

Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III is the US Airways pilot who landed an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009 when the plane lost power after taking off from LaGuardia Airport, possibly because of a collision with a flock of birds. Mr. Sullenberger, the captain on the flight, was hailed for his quick thinking and piloting skills that led to a smooth landing on the water, and for taking charge of an evacuation that ended with all 155 people on board brought to safety. Mr. Sullenberger told New York City officials that he had walked through the sinking plane twice, looking for any passengers who might have been left behind, before leaving himself.

Captain Sullenberger, known as Sully, flew the F-4 for the United States Air Force for seven years in the 1970s after graduating from the United States Air Force Academy. He joined USAir, as it was called at the time, in 1980 and became a “check airman,” training and evaluating new pilots or those changing to new aircraft or moving up to captain. He also was an accident investigator for the union, the Air Line Pilots Association, and is certified as a glider pilot.

He is the president and chief of executive officer of Safety Reliability Methods, Inc., a consulting firm that he founded that provides safety expertise in a variety of fields, according to its website. According to his biographical profile, he has logged over 19,000 hours as a pilot. In the Air Force, he served as flight leader and training officer in Europe, the Pacific and at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from the U.S. Air Force Academy, and later earned a master’s degrees in industrial psychology and public administration from Purdue and the University of Northern Colorado. At US Airways, he received a formal commendation for his efforts to improve the maintenance of the MD-80 fleets and participated in NASA research into improving runway safety. He also was a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management.

Captain Sullenberger's profile concludes a summary of his qualifications with this sentence: "Respected for wide range of industry knowledge, solid sense of integrity and demonstrated passion for industry as a whole as evidenced by lifelong career of flying."

Thank you Captain Sully.

** UPDATE **

Rachel Maddow verbalizes exactly what I was thinking upon hearing this story:

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