Capt. Sullenberger

 

Age and experience triumphed on 15th January 2009 when the crew of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 landed their aircraft on the Hudson River in New York and safely evacuated all of the155 people on the plane.

Although Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III (58), a veteran US Airways pilot received all the headlines , he also had a very experienced crew on board:

• First Officer Jeff Skiles, 49, has been flying since age 15 and has worked for US Airways for 28 years.
  
  
• Flight Attendant Donna Dent, age 51, joined US Airways (Piedmont Airlines) in 1982 and had more than 26 years experience with the airline.
  
  
• Flight Attendant Sheila Dail, age 57, joined US Airways (Piedmont Airlines) in 1980 and had more than 28 years experience with the airline.
• 
  Flight Attendant Doreen Welsh, age 58, joined US Airways (Allegheny Airlines) in 1970 and had more than 38 years experience with the airline.
  
  
  

The Wall Street Journal described Sullenberger’s feat as “one of the rarest and most technically challenging feats in commercial aviation.”

There have been few successful attempts at water landings during the jet age. Indeed, even though pilots go through the motions of learning to ditch a plane in water, the generally held belief is that such landings would almost certainly result in fatalities. Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger, a veteran US Airways pilot and his crew pulled it off

Might Sullenberger’s nearly 40 years of experience and that of his crew have had something to with that?

DISCUSS CONTRUBUTE TO THIS ARTICLE HERE