Today's Evil Beet Gossip

A Real American Hero!

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Meet Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, the US Airways pilot who kept his cool and perfectly crash-landed an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River — avoiding any ferries, water taxis, or, ya know, the city of Manhattan. Everyone I’ve heard talk on the subject so far says that water landing like that are extremely difficult, and that the plane almost always falls apart on landing. Sully’s aircraft barely saw a scratch.

Sullenberger, 57, has worked for US Airways since 1980, and before that spent more than six years as a U.S. Air Force F-4 fighter pilot.

No matter how you feel about the U.S. military or its current or past activities, this is the type of brilliant, cool-headed, quick-responding men and women it is capable of producing.

Thank you, Mr. Sullenberg, for reminding our nation that REAL AMERICAN HEROES are still out there! We certainly have true heroes risking their lives in order to save others every single day in Iraq and Afghanistan and in other parts of the world, but here in the U.S. we so rarely get to witness the courage and quick-thinking that our military nurtures in these men and women. On Thursday, the nation got that chance, thanks to you, sir.

Now please, please, PLEASE don’t let it turn out that you’re secretly a meth-head member of the Aryan Brotherhood. Please.

39 CommentsLeave a comment

  • i heard about this! amazing!!!! no one died or was hurt, the only thing ppl were treated for was hypothermia! i dont think id ever fly again but props to the pilot!!! not everyone can say theyve survived a plane crash.

    • Paula, fly. Fly, fly, fly. It’s safer than driving. If you look at the numbers of automotive incidents (where bad things happen but no one dies) and disasters (where people die), there are so many more than airplane incidents and disasters, that although the airplanes typically involve more people, it’s still whole orders of magnitude more likely for you to get hurt on the way to or from the airport, than once the plane has pulled away from the gate.

  • Not convinced that it’s particularly an American quality, but it was certainly heroic. The guy pulled out a textbook landing in fiendishly difficult circumstances, and not one person on board that craft died. Bravo, Sully!

  • I agree the guy is a hero.
    But why do you make it such a nationalistic thing ?
    I see HUMAN values before anything else here. Maybe it’s time for you to see the wolrd a little and open your mind.

  • Amazing man. So happy for all the passengers. And…the rest of the crew remained level headed as well and got everyone out using the rafts etc. Well trained crew all around.

  • This guy is awesome.  Glad to hear that the passengers did not freak out when it was time to get out of the plane.  It sound like everyone kept a level-head.  I hope there is a ceromony of sorts for his amazing landing.  This could have been  very tragic.

  • Disappointed in your comment about “no matter how you feel about the U.S. Military…” Any thinking adult who cannot separate the warrior from the war is an idiot.

    That said, this pilot rocks! I could not imagine being on that plane, since I hate heights, don’t like flying and cannot swim. This pilot and the many, many people who helped saved the day along with 150 people. The people on the plane who today are watching the footage should feel the warm fuzzy feeling that can only happen when so many are there to take care of others. What a great day!

    • “Any thinking adult who cannot separate the warrior from the war is an idiot.”

      i think she meant that even if you think the military is a colossal waste of money at the moment and they employ all kinds of dodgy torture tactics, they are capable of producing many well-trained graduates.

  • I live right on the other side of the river from Manhatten, obviously this has been ALL OVER the news here. It was an amazing feat, and there was amazingly quick and well coordinated help from the responders. Ferries from a private company came immediately to help, coast guard, police, fire dept. were there within moments. The pilot actually walked the plane multiple times to make sure everyone was out, and all the passengers acted responsibly and courteously with women and children helped out first. Pretty incredible.

  • Give the liberal news agencies time to ruin the Hero’s life now that they know he served in the military, worked hard to make flying safer, never was arrested in deviant situations, is seriously a good man, father, husband, is more applauded and approved than Obama and is stealing his neo-pres headline thunder, and might get a hero’s award from President Bush.. and that’s all evil no-no’s.

  • Beet, you lived here. You should know better. Manhattan is not a city. It’s a part of NYC. Oh, yeah. Kudos to the pilot too

  • I REALLY hope none of the passengers decide to be azzholes and decide to sue the airline. That would be so terrible, especially after this guy saved their lives. We all know how much worse it could’ve been. I hope, hope, hope nobody sues. It would be so low and grimey and fug up this wonderful story.

    • unfortunately they will definately sue – whiplash, hypothermia, loss of luggage, general ‘pain and suffering’, but the pilot wont get sued, the company will- and they are insured against lawsuits.
      everybody sues everybody. its how insurance companies stay alive.

      • I thought you can only sue if the damages were caused as a result of the company’s actions or negligence. Flying birds are an external cause that aren’t under the airline’s control. Of course there are assholes out there that will sue because “the flight attendant gave me a dirty look” but I don’t think the airline is responsible for the birds’ flight patterns.

      • I think even if the passengers don’t want to sue, the slimy ambulance chasers will see to it that they do. How sad!

        I also agree with a previous poster that I hope the media doesn’t decide to dig up dirt on the pilot’s private life. It’s none of our business!

  • can we take away the fame of paris hilton and joe the plumber, combine it , and then give it to this guy?

  • One other thing to mention about the pilot – he also walked up and down the aisle of the entire plane TWICE to make sure everyone was off the aircraft before he got out himself!

  • What the hell is up with that last reference regarding the Aryan Brotherhood? Where did you pull that one out from? Are you implying that just because he’s an older white man, there’s some high possibility that he’s a racist?

    • I think she was referring to earlier stories, such as when kids named “Adolf Hitler” and the like were taken away from their parents. Sheesh.

  • My dad is a retired 747 captain and has followed this story the last day. He read that the captain of this plane actually owns an airline safety consulting firm and knows how to deal with situations that he was in. Of course, all pilots go through yearly flight simulator testing and in that the check pilot (the teacher) tries to go through every scenario. But doing this in a simulator and doing in real life are 2 different things. This pilot is a hero. I was always afraid when my dad was at work and I asked him one day if he was ever concerned about airplane problems. He said NO and I asked why and he said “because I am flying”. You need to have a lot of confidence to fly a plane and be responsible for the safety of everyone on board.

  • Sorry, “hero” does not apply simply because he landed the plane. His life was on the line also. He had one hellova motivation…saving his own bacon.

    A hero is someone who risks his life when he didn’t have to.

  • So for all the people who gripe the next time flight attendants tell you to stow your cabin baggage completely under the seat so you don’t trip over it while trying to make an emergency exit and to turn off and stow your phone away so it doesnt fly out of your hand and knock someone in the head or to wear your seat belt so that your face doesnt slam into the seat in front of you, please remember this incident. take-off taxi and landing are critical stages of flight. When a plane is below 1 500 hundred feet there is a good chance of a bird flying into the engine.