aptain Sully Speaks Out, Offers Powerful Insight on DC Air Disaster
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, famously known as “Sully,” spoke out following a tragic plane collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., that resulted in no survivors. In remarks reported by the New York Times, Sully addressed the challenges pilots face at the historic airport, which has seen little modernization since its construction nearly a century ago. Despite the recent incident, he emphasized that flying remains “exceptionally safe,” noting that the U.S. had not experienced a fatal commercial crash in almost 16 years.
Sully recounted his own experience landing an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River in 2009 after a bird strike, emphasizing the importance of learning from both incidents and accidents. He highlighted that factors like nighttime conditions, staffing shortages in the control tower, and the unique challenges of flying over the Potomac River may have contributed to the recent crash. He expressed his devastation over the event and stressed the obligation to learn from such failures to improve future safety measures.
One pilot is speaking out after Wednesday night’s tragic collision near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., that left no survivors.
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, or “Sully” as he’s known, made comments reported by the New York Times on Thursday about the difficulties pilots deal with at Reagan National Airport, how safe flying is despite this incident, and what can be learned from it.
Sully successfully landed an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River in 2009 shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport in New York.
The plane struck a flock of geese that took out both engines.
The emergency landing was a success as there were zero fatalities out of the 150 passengers and five crew members.
Sully called flying “exceptionally safe” despite the events of Wednesday night. The Times stated there had not been a fatal commercial crash in the U.S. in nearly 16 years.
“We’ve had to learn important lessons literally with blood too often, and we had finally gotten beyond that, to where we could learn from incidents, and not accidents,” Sully said.
He then commented on the unique difficulties posed to pilots at Reagan Airport — as it was built nearly one hundred years ago.
“It hasn’t changed much since then,” he said, adding, “Of course, we’ve added technology to it. But a lot of the technology is old.”
On Wednesday, whatever problems posed by the airport itself appear to be compounded by other conditions, such as understaffing in the control tower, nighttime conditions, and flying over the Potomac.
“Nighttime always makes things different about seeing other aircraft — basically all you can do is see the lights on them,” Sullenberger explained.
“You have to try to figure out: Are they above you or below you? Or how far away? Or which direction are they headed?” he said, laying out the situation those pilots could have been dealing with.
On the Potomac factoring in, he said, “There would have been fewer ground lights visible over the water than over land at night,” although he indicated this was “supposition” without knowing every detail from the crash.
“I’m just devastated by this,” Sully said.
On what can be taken from Wednesday, he added, “We have the obligation to learn from every failure and improve.”
Wednesday night was an awful moment as no reported survivors turned many Americans to prayer.
For this captain who did successfully save so many lives back in 2009, he hopes there’s is something to be gained from this terrible moment.
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