LAS VEGAS — "You act like you already know who I am," Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger joked to the audience during his keynote address at NACE Thursday morning. "But that wasn't always the case."
Sullenberger is the U.S. Airways pilot of Flight 1549 who was thrust into the national spotlight when he landed his plane in the Hudson River in January after colliding with a flock birds, and successfully evacuated all 155 passengers.
Before that, though, Sullenberger said he was an "anonymous, regular guy," who had logged more than 20,000 hours of flight time in a four-decade career. Hailed as a hero in the press, Sullenberger credits the successful landing and evacuation to the teamwork of his crew, and a career-long focus on safety and training. His message to collision repairers who've been through turbulent economic times: prepare, train and avoid complacency.
"No matter how dire your situation is, further action is always possible," he said. "When you are true to your ideals and work together, there is nothing you can't accomplish."
Even before the dramatic Hudson rescue made Sullenberger a public figure, he had been a tireless advocate for safety within U.S. Airways, and served as the Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman and accident investigator.
On that fateful January day, Sullenberger and first officer Jeff Skiles (who Sullenberger had never met prior to Jan. 12) were quickly and effectively able to assess the situation and develop a plan to land the plane safely because of their training.
"I knew I could do it," Sullenberger said. "Based on my education, training and experience, I knew which options were possible—and which options were not."
Being a pilot, Sullenberger said, requires a finely tuned balance of confidence and caution, qualities that he feels he'd been developing from a young age. Sullenberger grew up in Texas, where his mother was a school teacher and his WWII-veteran father instilled in him a sense of civic duty and the idea of putting service before self.
"Ordinary virtues can prepare us to face extraordinary challenges and perform extraordinary acts," Sullenberger said.
He knew from the age of five that he wanted to fly planes, and never even entertained another career path. After a stint in the U.S. Air Force, he became a commercial pilot and eventually rose to the rank of Captain.
"Finding a job you can love or learn to love is important," he said. "Society benefits when we become expert at what we do. We have a moral and ethical obligation to do the best work we can."
Sullenberger also emphasized the importance of integrity, which he defined as "doing the right thing, even when it's not convenient."
"Integrity is the core of my profession," he said. "That means doing the right thing every time, even if it means inconveniencing 183 people who just want to get home to their families."
Since the January accident, Sullenberger has returned to flying part time with U.S. Airways, published a memoir (Highest Duty) and hit the lecture circuit to talk about safety issues in front of a variety of industry groups. He has also become an advocate for airline pilots, saying that he and Skiles felt "an intense obligation to further respect for our profession," which he feels had been diminished over the past three decades.
Throughout his speech, and again during the brief Q&A session that followed, Sullenberger returned again and again to the theme that education, training, and continuous improvement processes are the key to ensuring safety and responding to any emergency or crisis, regardless of what industry you are in.
"On January 15, circumstances changed everything in an instant, and I'm proud to have been up to the challenge," he said.
