Heather Poole

US Airways Captain Chesley B "Sully" Sullenberger

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Heather Poole

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Chesley B “Sully” Sullenberger, Captain of US Airways flight 1549.
Want to know more about this amazing man? This is what it says on his website:
Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger, III is a captain for a major U.S. airline with over 40 years of flying experience. A former U.S. Air Force (USAF) fighter pilot, he has served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member. He has participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigations. His ALPA safety work led to the development of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular. Working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists, he coauthored a paper on error inducing contexts in aviation. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Crew Resource Management (CRM) course used at his airline and has taught the course to hundreds of his colleagues. Sully is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (B.S.), Purdue University (M.S.) and the University of Northern Colorado (M.A.). He was a speaker on two panels at the High Reliability Organizations (HRO) 2007 International Conference in Deauville, France May 29-31, 2007. He has just been named a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.
As far as the flight attendants onboard flight 1549, I’m still waiting to hear something, anything, other than they all survived. A reliable source told me…

“I’ve heard the date of hire for flight attendants were 1969, 1980, and 1981. All senior. They had lots of luck & experience on their side.”

7 responses to “US Airways Captain Chesley B "Sully" Sullenberger”

  1. Biggie-Z Avatar
    Biggie-Z

    Wow. Amazing. I heard everyone survived, thank goodness.

    The pictures I saw were amazing – just looked like the plane landed on (in) the Hudson as if it were a runway.

    Reply
  2. Blondie Avatar
    Blondie

    Experience really pays in the cockpit, as well as the cabin! Passengers have been saying that the doors were opened *snap* “like that”. Awesome job by the FAs–probably especially the #1…

    (pulling out my manual and looking at the raft assembly again–just to be sure!)

    Reply
  3. Traytable Avatar
    Traytable

    There’s an amazing pic on FLickr! which I linked to in my blog, showing the aircraft having come to a rest in the water, before the doors opened.

    Interesting discussion in the media here re: not using the rear doors being ‘unsafe’. Ha- and using them will make it better they think? I really do wish they would do some research before making comments like this!

    Reply
  4. Meg Avatar
    Meg

    It’s great to have a FA’s perspective on all this, Heather. I’m sure you’d have been equally heroic under the same circumstances.

    Reply
  5. John In MRY Avatar
    John In MRY

    Let’s not forget about the First Officer; although his name may not be on CNN every 30 seconds there were TWO people on that flight deck. Capt Sullenberger obviously did an awesome job, but I’d really like to see the credit shared a bit.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    The name of the co-pilot is
    “Jeff Skiles”. To honor him too.

    Reply
  7. Vanessa Avatar
    Vanessa

    I was searching the web to try to find someone praising the flight attendants as well. I was a flight attendant have two cousins that are flight attendants. If they hadn’t done a great job evacuating that plane, there is no way everyone would’ve gotten off safely. I’d like to see them recognized too. I am sure it doesn’t help that they’re all women.

    Reply

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