Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger is facing another harrowing battle, this time one having to do with his health.
The man known for heroically piloting a damaged passenger plane into the Hudson River and saving 155 lives 17 years ago is now fighting Alzheimer’s disease.
‘I am in the beginning of this long journey.’
“I recently found out I have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It is early stage,” said the 75-year-old in a statement. “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.”
He said he was speaking out in hopes of encouraging other families dealing with the disease.
“This new phase of my life has challenged what it means to be of service. And the answer is to speak up,” he continued. “It is my hope that by sharing this, other families living in the shadows with this disease will feel they too can step forward.”
Sullenberger’s story was dramatized in the 2016 hit movie “Sully,” which was directed by Clint Eastwood and starred Tom Hanks as the hero.
The Jan. 2009 incident that stemmed from a plane hitting numerous birds on takeoff and losing both of its engines has since been dubbed the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
Sullenberger has spoken many times about his actions on that fateful day.
“I think about not only what we did but what everybody else did,” he said to ABC News on the 10th anniversary of the water landing. “All the pieces had to come together. This group of strangers had to rise to the occasion and make sure that they saved every life.”
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Sullenberger had been described by the passengers as very calm as he helped them exit the plane, but he has since revealed otherwise.
“I think people with certain temperament gravitate toward certain jobs and flying is certainly one of those, and I think the training and the experience we develop tends to make us more that way,” he explained.
“It develops in you an ability to summon up from somewhere within this ability to create a sense of calm, a professional calm,” he added. “But we weren’t calm. We couldn’t be calm. The stress was too intense, but we had that focus … to be able to do the job in spite of how stressful it was.”
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