STACK December 2016 Issue No. 146

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• Sully’s lifelong passion for
flying was sparked at five years
old when he witnessed the
awe-inspiring sight of jets taking
off from the now-defunct Perrin
Air Force Base near his childhood
home in Denison, Texas. A
lifetime later, he would mentor
kids who share his love for
aviation as co-chair of the EAA
Young Eagles program.
• After taking a much-needed break
from the public eye, Sully celebrated his
return to commercial flying by reteaming
with co-pilot Jeff Skiles to honour the
partnership that one expert described
as “a magnificent piece of aviation
professionalism.” He would fly with
Skiles one last time a little over a year
following the famous incident, when the
two partnered on Sully’s final retirement
flight in 2010.
• Following his official retirement
from commercial piloting on March
3, 2010, Sully founded the safety,
performance and reliability consulting
company Safety Reliability Methods Inc. He now
extends his expertise beyond the aviation industry
to apply his passion, experience and expertise
to a variety of business environments. He has
become an in-demand lecturer, speaking at diverse
institutions all over the world on safety, crisis
management, leadership and living a life of integrity.
• All these years
later, Sully’s passion for
flying has never waned.
“It’s something that has
given my life purpose
and meaning, and great
satisfaction,” he says.
–º“It’s been a lot of fun
becoming particularly good
at something that’s difficult
to do well.”
SOME THINGS ABOUT SULLY...
2 1
If Hollywood has become
obsessed with superheroes
with all their super powers
and shiny suits, then Clint
Eastwood has been fascinated
with heroes for more than half
a century, be it the real-life
variety such as Nelson Mandela
(Invictus ), Navy SEAL sniper
Chris Kyle ( American Sniper),
or those down and dirty anti-
heroes of his imagination,
vigilantes like Dirty Harry and a
motley collection of lawmen, cowboys and
outlaws.
Now he takes on Sully, aka Chesley
Sullenberger (played by Tom Hanks), the
real-life US Airways pilot who stunned
the world in 2009 when he dramatically
landed his plane on the Hudson River
after both engines were disabled by a bird
strike.
Saving all on board, Sully was lauded a
hero, only to have his heroism questioned
days later by over-zealous aviation
authorities in search of a scapegoat.
Eventually cleared of any wrongdoing,
Sully resumed his rightful place in the
spotlight as a true American hero, penning
his memoir Highest Duty.
The event received so much media
attention, Eastwood, like most of us,
thought he knew the entire story. “This
guy Sullenberger did a fantastic job on
landing the plane, all 155 lived, so where’s
the conflict, I thought,” recalls Eastwood,
86, when STACK meets with him in Los
Angeles. “And then I realised there was
a lot that happened that day and the days
after – his periods of self doubt inspired
by the NTSB [National Transportation
Safety Board] and having to prove his
decisions, which came out to be the right
decisions, so then it became very dramatic.
Sometimes you just have to look deeper
than your first thoughts, which were ‘this
was a wonderful event, but who wants to
see a whole movie about it?’”
Eastwood had survived his own ocean
crash when he was 21 years old, after
sneaking into the cargo hold of
a military plane, which crashed
into the Pacific. The veteran
filmmaker is sparing in his use of
the title ‘hero’.
“We have this politically
correct thing now where
everybody has to win a prize; all
the little boys in the class have
to go home with a first place
trophy,” he says. “So the use
of the word ‘hero’ is a little bit
overdone. But I don’t think so in
Sully’s case.”
A licensed helicopter pilot and having
flown for more than 30 years, Eastwood
has a particular appreciation of Sully’s
skills. “Aviation is very exacting. Its not
like when we get in our car, we just jump
in. We don’t care if the wheel is half off
as long as we get there, by the skin of
the teeth,” he explains. “But in aviation,
you just don’t do that. You need to be an
exacting person; somebody who really
knows the detail and lives by the rules,
and Sully is that kind of guy. He lived by
the rules and he was able to make the
decision to land in the Hudson because
he’d been through training, even if he
never imagined himself
doing that before. But all
of a sudden you have
to think and make a lot
of things happen in very
few seconds, and that’s
what the story is about.”
Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood
The use of the word 'hero'
is a little bit overdone. But I
don't think so in Sully's case
• Sully is out
on Dec 14