Sully Sullenberger announces early-stage Alzheimer's diagnosis

Pilot urges others to ‘step forward’ with diagnosis

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009, announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Sullenberger, 75, from California, described the condition in a post on his personal website as “the unwanted visitor at the door.”

“I recently found out that I have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease,” Sullenberger wrote. “It is early stage. For now, this means a name may not come easily to me, I forget a story I have recently told, or I don’t sleep as well, but I am in the beginning of this long journey.”

Sullenberger was the pilot of US Airways Flight 1549, which made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in 2009 after striking a flock of birds that disabled both engines of the Airbus A320. Aviation officials and passengers credited Sullenberger with guiding the plane to a safe emergency landing on the water. All passengers and crew members aboard survived, and the incident became widely known as the “Miracle on the Hudson.”

In addition to his career as a commercial airline pilot, Sullenberger served in the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot. He also worked as an accident investigator and served as the U.S. ambassador to the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Sullenberger said the diagnosis has challenged what it means to live an act of service.

“Over the years, when people would ask about the successful outcome of Flight 1549, I would say that ‘courage can be contagious,’ and on that day it helped everyone band together to get everyone off that airplane successfully,” he wrote. “Now we need that courage to battle this disease. I am now part of a larger community with many of you, and we will be courageous together.”

He added: “And the answer is to speak up. It is my hope that by sharing this, other families living in the shadows with this disease will feel they too can step forward.”

MSI previously reported that Sullenberger had announced the diagnosis.