Free Sully!
Again America — don’t Wesley Autrey the poor man. He’s done enough:
Posted: February 3rd, 2009 | Filed under: CelebritySullenberger said that when both engines on the Charlotte, NC-bound jet conked out after takeoff from La Guardia Airport — investigators say a double bird strike caused both engines to shut down — the feeling of total silence was “shocking.”
“It was very quiet as we worked, my co-pilot and I,” he said, slowly relating the heart-pounding moments.
“We were a team. But to have zero thrust coming out of those engines was shocking — the silence.”
Then prodded to relate his feelings as he dealt with zero power and a split-second decision about how and where to land, Sully said simply:
“Calm on the outside, turmoil inside.”
. . .
Of the entire experience, Sully kept telling ESPN it was simply “surreal.”
But his poise under pressure earned him a telephone call from President Obama — who invited him to his Jan. 20 inauguration and offered to fly him aboard Air Force One — a trip to the Super Bowl, and even a job offer from Virgin Air.
And he hasn’t ruled anything out.
“I will be happy to entertain all the things that are coming my way,” he told Britain’s Daily Mail when contacted at his home in Danville, Calif.
The indomitable pilot will give his first full interview about the Miracle on the Hudson to CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday.