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HEIDI SCHUMANN / NEW YORK TIMES
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot who made a safe landing in the Hudson River in 2009, walks near his home in Danville, Calif., in December 2009. Sullenberger said today he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
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MICHAEL APPLETON / NEW YORK TIMES / JAN. 15, 2009
A US Airways jetliner is accompanied by emergency craft and a civilian ferry as it floats down New York’s Hudson River in 2009. All 155 people aboard a US Airways flight survived when pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed the plane in the river after it hit a flock of geese. Sullenberger announced today that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, the pilot known as “Sully” who guided a passenger jet to a water landing in 2009 in what became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” after he saved 155 lives, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, he said in a statement today.
The diagnosis is “early stage,” he said, adding, “I am in the beginning of this long journey.”
Sullenberger, 75, retired as a commercial pilot in 2010, a year after his famous landing on the Hudson River. On Jan. 15, 2009, he was piloting US Airways Flight 1549 on a flight from LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, when both of the plane’s engines lost power after it struck a flock of geese shortly after takeoff.
Sullenberger guided the Airbus A320 safely into the Hudson River, and everyone on board was safely rescued. He was hailed as a hero after the landing, with President Barack Obama inviting the captain and his five-person crew to his 2009 inauguration days after the emergency landing.
Significant media coverage followed, as well as the 2016 movie “Sully” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks.
After the incident and the attention it brought, Sullenberger called for new safety measures in aviation, including increased pilot training, more pilot rest and a rule requiring two pilots to be in the cockpit at all times. In 2021, President Joe Biden nominated him to be an ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations agency that helps develop policies and standards for global aviation.
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In the announcement of his diagnosis, Sullenberger nodded to his work as an ambassador, as well as his time in the U.S. Air Force and as an aviation accident investigator, saying he “spent his life in service.”
“So this new phase of my life has challenged what it means to be of service,” he wrote. “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.”
An estimated 7.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, a form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.The disease worsens over time, and early-stage symptoms — as Sullenberger said he was experiencing — include memory loss as well as difficulties with problem solving and completing tasks.
“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,” he wrote.
The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America praised Sullenberger’s announcement.
“His decision to publicly disclose his diagnosis will help raise awareness, reduce stigma, and show support for the many others living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia-related illnesses,” the foundation said in a statement attributed to Charles J. Fuschillo Jr., the organization’s president.
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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