How many times has his name been mentioned over the news? OK, some might get angry or tad jealous of his incident on the Hudson river, but he still made his fame notable whether we like that fact or not.
Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III (born January 23, 1951) is an American airline transport pilot (ATP), safety expert, and accident investigator from Danville, California. Sullenberger rose to fame when he successfully ditched US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan, New York City, on
January 15, 2009, saving the lives of all 155 people on the aircraft.
Here is a little biography about him that made me fascinate about the man and think that he has already played a big role in the arena of aviation. Sullenberger was born in Denison, Texas to a dentist father — a descendant of Swiss immigrants named Sullenberger— and an elementary school teacher mother. He has one sister, Mary Wilson. The street on which he grew up in Denison, Texas, was named after his mother's family, the Hannas. According to his sister, Sullenberger built model planes and aircraft carriers during his childhood, and says he became interested in flying after seeing military jets from a nearby Air Force base from his house. He went to school in Denison, and was consistently in the 99th percentile in every academic category. At the age of 12, his IQ was deemed high enough to join Mensa International. In high school he was the president of the Latin club, a first chair flute, and an honor student. His high school friends have said that Sullenberger developed a passion for flying from watching jets based out of Perrin Air Force Base. He was an active member of the Waples Memorial United Methodist Church in Denison, and graduated from Denison High School in 1969 near the top of his class of about 350. At 16, Sullenberger learned to fly in an Aeronca 7DC from a private airstrip near his home. He said the training he received from a local flight instructor set the base for his aviation career for the rest of his life.
Sullenberger is an international speaker on airline safety and has helped develop new protocols for airline safety. As of September 30, 2009, Sullenberger is also the co-chairman of the EAA's Young Eagles youth introduction-to-aviation program Sullenberger retired from US Airways after 30 years as a commercial pilot on March 3, 2010. In May of the following year, Sullenberger was hired by CBS News as an on-air aviation expert.
He is the author of Highest Duty, a memoir of his life and of the events surrounding Flight 1549, published in 2009 by HarperCollins. He was ranked second in TIME Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons of 2009.
When I walked in Barnes& Noble, I have noticed that Captain Sully has already occupied these shelves and recent book release cases by not only his heroic action that day but because of his ability to adapt to any situation proving that he is capable of recovering from nasty situations like engine failure. Automation was one of the topics that were given to us in the beginning of this semester and even then I mentioned his name multiple times though some might feel a tad jealous when it comes to recover from such situation. However, I have already read so many failures from pilots that couldn’t figure out what happened to the plane in cases of automation and failed to recover. He didn’t, and that to me is admirable!
No comments:
Post a Comment