‘Miracle’ pilot: I’m retiring

March 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

CHARLOTTE, N.C.

Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger has flown his final flight.

The pilot who landed a US Airways plane safely on the Hudson River last January said Wednesday he is retiring after 30 years and plans to spend some of his time pressing for more flight safety.

“My message going forward is that I want to remind everyone in the aviation industry — especially those who manage aviation companies and those who regulate aviation — that we owe it to our passengers to keep learning how to do it better,” he said at a news conference shortly after his last flight landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Sullenberger officially retired at a private ceremony in Charlotte with fellow pilots and other US Airways employees.

The 59-year-old Sullenberger joined US Airways’ predecessor airline in 1980.

His final flight, number 1167 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to his base at Charlotte (N.C.) Douglas International Airport took just under two hours. It arrived at 2:48 p.m. EST — 17 minutes ahead of schedule.

Sullenberger flew on Wednesday with his co-pilot during the Hudson landing, First Officer Jeff Skiles.

As they walked off the plane, people in the airport recognized the pilots and applauded.

Sullenberger said he plans to spend more time with his family in retirement and will write another book. He also will continue to talk to lawmakers about raising minimum qualifications for pilots and work to lower the maximum number of hours pilots are able to work in a single day.

He said it’s more difficult to be a pilot today than 30 years ago.

SDLqThere is so much pressure to hire people with less experience. Their salaries are so low that people with greater experience will not take those jobs. We have some carriers that have hired some pilots with only a few hundred hours of experience. ... There’s simply no substitute for experience in terms of aviation safety,” Sullenberger said.

Flight attendant Doreen Welsh, 59, who was on Flight 1549 when it landed in the Hudson, also officially retired Wednesday. Welsh, 59, joined US Airways’ predecessor airline in 1970 — when she was 19 years old.

All 150 passengers survived the emergency river landing in January 2009 when a flock of Canada geese was sucked into the plane’s engines minutes after taking off from New York’s LaGuardia, headed for Charlotte, N.C.

“Each generation of pilots hopes that they will leave their profession better off than they found it,” Sullenberger said. “In spite of the best efforts of thousands of my colleagues, that is not the case today.”

He said about a half dozen of the passengers on Flight 1549 joined him on his last flight.