After hero Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III turned the Hudson from a river into a runway, his co-pilot beamed.
“No one has ever pulled this off,” Jeff Skiles said as they floated in a rescue boat, according to passenger Billy Campbell, 49. “You’ve done something amazing!”
Sullenberger did not seem all that impressed, Campbell told The Post.
But when Campbell thanked the pilot for saving their lives, he did say, “You’re welcome.”
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Such humility is not surprising to friends and colleagues of the US Airways pilot.
NTSB board member Kitty Higgins said Thursday’s feat “has to go down the most successful ditching in aviation history.” But to Sullenberger and his brother pilots, it’s just another day’s work.
Even after Sullenberger had a little more time to reflect on his heroics, he seemed uncomfortable with the attention, officials with the pilots union said.
“I spoke to him last night and he seemed overwhelmed by all of this – he prefers to be a quiet professional,” said James Ray, a spokesman for the US Airline Pilots Association. “But he and the whole crew all seem to be in good shape.”
Fighting back tears, Sullenberger’s wife, Lorrie, said: “We are very proud of dad.”
She said it’s “a little weird” to hear the whole world call her husband a hero.
When their two daughters, Kate, 15, and Kelly, 14, went to sleep the night of their father’s feat, “I could hear them talking, ‘Is this weird or what?’ ” she said.
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Family friends said Sullenberger would probably rather go home and call it a day than make the TV talk-show circuit.
But attention came to him last night when President-elect Barack Obama spoke to him by phone for about five minutes shortly before 7 p.m. Obama’s office said the president-elect told him “how proud everyone was for the heroic and graceful job he had done in landing the damaged aircraft.”
Sullenberger’s response was not disclosed, but it was likely to have been a modest one, said people who know him.
“Sully is such a humble guy – if you ask him about his work, he’ll usually say something like, ‘There’s not much to talk about. You take off and you land,’ ” said Ann Sholer, a friend who lives near the Sullenbergers in Danville, Calif.
“We were all out for dinner a little while ago and I said, ‘Sully, have you ever had a close call in all your years flying?’ ” she said. “Sully said, ‘No.’ ”
He also has a tremendous work ethic, she said.
“He recently was transferred to Charlotte, so now he has to fly from SFO [San Francisco] to New York before he even starts his route,” she said.
The former Air Force fighter pilot, who has served as a safety consultant for NASA, was more than prepared for the job, his fellow pilots said.
“To be honest, this is his job – you have to deal with the situation, with what’s in front of you, and he did it well,” fellow US Airways pilot Walter Ywaskevic said. “Thank God the Hudson River was there and not the cliffs of Guatemala.”
President Bush phoned the nation’s latest hero to salute the pilot for his skill, White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
An offer came from an anonymous person to donate $10,000 toward erecting a statue of Sullenberger, Gov. Paterson said.
Additional reporting by Rita Delfiner, Todd Venezia, Ginger Adams Otis and Post Wire Services
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