In January 2009, Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger III safely landed a passenger aircraft in the Hudson River, saving all 155 people on board
Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III, who famously landed a passenger plane on the Hudson River in 2009, commented on the deadly aircraft collision that occurred over the Potomac River on Wednesday night.
“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,” Captain Sullenberger told The New York Times.
Sullenberger explained to the outlet that “everything is harder” when flying at night. He noted that while the pilots’ ability to see may have been impacted by the darkness, “we don’t know” whether that was the case.
“I’m just devastated by this,” Sullenberger said. “We have the obligation to learn from every failure and improve.”
Search and rescue efforts are seen around a wreckage site in the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, early Thursday morning on Jan. 30, 2025, in Arlington, Va.
At approximately 9:00 PM local time on Wednesday night, an Army Black Hawk collided with an American Airlines plane near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, D.C. All 67 people onboard both aircraft are presumed dead.
John Donnelly, Chief of the District of Columbia Fire Department, said on Thursday morning that authorities did not believe there were any survivors, and the mission was shifting “from a rescue operation to a recovery operation.”
Part of the wreckage is seen as rescue boats search the waters of the Potomac River after a plane on approach to Reagan National Airport crashed into the river near Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025.
President Donald Trump called the deadly crash a “dark and excruciating night in our nation’s capital and in our nation’s history, and a tragedy of terrible proportions.”
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“Together, we take solace in the knowledge that their journey ended not in the cold waters of the Potomac, but in the warm embrace of a loving God,” Trump said.
In a video statement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the department knows “on our side who was involved. It was a fairly experienced crew, and that was doing a required annual night evaluation. They did have night vision goggles.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who was sworn-in hours before the collision, said “everything was standard” before the crash. He also vowed to get answers for the victims’ families and the American people.
All 155 people aboard US Airways Flight 1549 stood on the wings of the plane where Captain “Sully” safely landed in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009.
In January 2009, Sullenberger landed an Airbus A320 safely in the Hudson River after striking a flock of birds that disabled both engines shortly after takeoff; all 155 people aboard survived. His heroic actions, later dubbed the “miracle on the Hudson,” were depicted in the 2016 film “Sully” starring Tom Hanks.
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