Chesley Sullenberger

Chesley Sullenberger (http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/monde/amerique/nous-allons-nous-retrouver-dans-l-hudson_739090.html)

Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III is a pilot, a member of Mensa, but most importantly, he is a hero. Chesley Sullenberger never stopped making the world a better and safer place to live through his hard work, intelligence, and determination. He earned an influential place in today’s society for his variety of different achievements.

The young Sullenberger (http://usafa73.org/news.htm)

Chesley was born January 23rd 1951 to a dentist father and an elementary school teacher mother. He grew up in Denison, Texas, and showed promising intelligence at a young age. He scored in the 99th percentile in every subject, and had a high enough IQ to join Mensa, an organization for people of a certain intelligence, at age 12. At age 14 he received a glider pilot’s license. 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 Sully developed a passion for flying from watching jets based out of Perrin Air Force Base. Sully graduated from Denison High School in 1969, near the top of his class of about 350. At 16, Sully learned to fly from a private airstrip near his home. Sully said the training he received from a local flight instructor set the base for his aviation career for the rest of his life.

The "miracle" landing

When he turned eighteen, Chesley enrolled at the United States Air Force Academy in 1969. He was selected as one of around a dozen other freshmen for a cadet glider program, and by the end of that year, he was an instructor pilot. In the year of his graduation, 1973, he received the Outstanding Cadet in Airmanship award, as the class top flier. Following graduation with a B.S. degree and his commissioning as an officer, the Air Force sent him to Purdue University. He then served in the Air Force as a fighter pilot for 5 years, in that time he became a flight leader, a training officer, and attained the rank of captain. He was also a member of the official aircraft accident investigation board.

Sully at the Superbowl (http://g1.globo.com/Noticias/Mundo/foto/0,,17452720-EX,00.jpg)

Chesley was employed by the commercial airline industry as an ATP (Airline Transport Pilot) since 1980. He started his own safety consulting business in 2007 which offers ways to help businesses improve safety on airline flights. In co-operation with NASA, he co-authored a paper on error-producing contexts during aviation. In total he has logged over 40 years and 27,000 hours of flight experience and has flown a variety of planes across destinations from North America, South America, and Europe. He also studied the psychology of keeping a crew in function in a crisis situation. He also has a flight instructor certificate for gliders, single-engine planes, and multi engine-planes.

Chesley Sullenberger at a ceremony (http://latimes.image2.trb.com/lanews/media/photo/2009-01/44689411.jpg)

However, Chesley is most famous, by far, for his “miracle” landing of flight 1549 on the Hudson River. In the miracle landing, which was caused by hitting a flock of birds, he saved 165 lives. He was prepared for the situation after hours and hours of relentless training and experience, as well as his studies in psychology. He received an enormous amount of national attention, including an appearance on 60 Minutes. He was dubbed “Captain Cool” by Mayor Bloomberg for his calm attitude during the crash landing. As every hero should be, Chesley was rewarded greatly, receiving gratitude from George W. Bush (during his presidency) and president-elect Barrack Obama. He was also honored in the Superbowl XLII pre-game show. The Seaplane Pilots Association awarded him a lifetime membership.

Chesley Sullenberger deserves to be called a hero. He puts hard work and effort into improving airline safety. But most importantly he puts others in front of himself, and that’s why he deserves to be called a hero.