CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / PASADENA
Hero pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger has been named grand marshal of the 2010 Rose Parade, officials said Thursday.
Sullenberger gained fame for successfully landing his passenger plane on the Hudson River in New York City. Sullenberger’s US Airways jet had just taken off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport when it hit a flock of geese and lost power in both engines. Sullenberger, judging that the plane could not make it to an airport and could crash into an urban neighborhood, decided to ditch the plane in the Hudson River, deftly bringing it down intact on the water.
After passengers were evacuated, Sullenberger twice walked the sinking plane’s watery aisle to make sure no one had been left behind.
-- Shelby Grad
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