Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who soared to fame as a national hero by landing a stricken US Airways jetliner in the Hudson River, is retiring at age 59, the airline said Wednesday.
Sullenberger had captained limited flights and was a member of the airline's flight operations safety management team since retuning to duty in September after the Jan. 15, 2009 ditching, in which all 155 people aboard the plane survived.
In the last year, Sullenberger had become an outspoken advocate for tighter safety regulation in the industry.
“Each generation of pilots hopes that they will leave their profession better off than they found it,” he said in a statement Wednesday. “In spite of the best efforts of thousands of my colleagues, that is not the case today.
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