Hero pilot is now CBS News expert

By David Bauder

AP Television Writer

NEW YORK

Retired pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger expects a lot more from his new job at CBS News than waiting for a plane to crash so he can be a “talking head.”

Sullenberger, who became a national hero two years ago when he landed a crippled U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River and saved 155 lives, is the network’s on-air aviation and safety expert. He wants to keep a close eye on the industry where he worked for decades.

Sullenberger made his debut Tuesday on the “CBS Evening News,” talking with anchor Harry Smith about the crash into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago of an Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris. Over the past week, teams have pulled 75 bodies from the 2009 crash site.

“We can’t assume that because aviation has continued to get safer — accidents are relatively rare now — that we’re doing everything right,” Sullenberger said in a recent interview. “We have to keep actively looking for continuous improvements, looking for systemic deficiencies and fixing them, and not just blaming individuals when there are systemic issues out there.”

Recent stories about sleeping air-traffic controllers should be a warning for the industry, said Sullenberger, who retired last year as an active pilot.

If schedules continue to be built for controllers, pilots, mechanics and flight attendants that ignore the body’s need for sleep and recovery time, “then ultimately, we’re going to create situations where the system will fail.”

Since retiring as an active pilot last year, Sullenberger has kept busy with public speaking, consulting and writing. He’s working on his second book, on leadership; his first, a memoir titled “Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters,” came out last year.

His relationship with CBS News developed after giving a “60 Minutes” interview about U.S. Airways Flight 1549 when Jeff Fager, the show’s executive producer and now CBS News chairman, visited his northern California home. Hiring Sullenberger was a coup for CBS.