‘Miracle on the Hudson’ pilot Sullenberger announces Alzheimer’s diagnosis
July 14 (UPI) — Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who safely landed an airliner in New York City’s Hudson River in 2009, announced Tuesday that he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
He revealed the news in a post to his personal website. He described the condition as “the unwanted visitor at the door.”
“I recently found out that I have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease,” he wrote. “It is early stage. For now, this means a name may not come easily to me, I forget a story I have recently told, or I don’t sleep as well, but I am in the beginning of this long journey.”
Sullenberger was the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, which made a safe emergency landing in the Hudson River after striking a flock of birds that disabled the plane’s engines. Aviation officials and the plane’s passengers credited Sullenberger with guiding the Airbus A320 safely to the surface of the water. All passengers and crew members aboard the flight survived, prompting observers to describe the incident as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
In addition to working as a commercial airline pilot, Sullenberger served in the U.S. Air Force, an accident investigator and was the U.S. ambassador to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
He said the diagnosis has challenged what it means to live an act of service.
“And the answer is to speak up. It is my hope that by sharing this, other families living in the shadows with this disease will feel they too can step forward,” he said Tuesday.
“Over the years, when people would ask about the successful outcome of Flight 1549, I would say that ‘courage can be contagious,’ and on that day it helped everyone band together to get everyone off that airplane successfully. Now we need that courage to battle this disease. I am now part of a larger community with many of you, and we will be courageous together.”