Capt. Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III, the quick-thinking pilot who became an international hero after he saved the lives of 155 passengers in January when he safely ditched his plane in the Hudson River, has admitted all the accolades have spiced up his sex life.
“Rock star sex,” is how the hero pilot explained it to Matt Lauer for NBC’s "People of the Year" TV special, which aired on Thanksgiving Day, describing his new found mojo with his wife, Lorrie.
His wife wholeheartedly agrees, and is the one who spilled the beans publicly in the first place. Lauer had asked Sullenberger and his wife whether his sudden celebrity helped or hurt their relationship.
"He doesn't know I'm going to say this, but I had joked the other day that...the hero sex really helps a 20-year-old marriage," declared Lorrie Sullenberger, who then laughed delightedly.
"Rock star sex," chimed in the 58-year-old Capt. Sullenberger.
As the world knows, the pilot became an international celebrity after he expertly landed US Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River offshore from Manhattan, New York City, after a flock of birds caused him to lose power in both engines. All people aboard survived.
A boost in the bedroom is a natural reward for a man who displays the kind of courage and confidence Sully showed in the cockpit of his US Airways jet, sex therapists said. It is even reported that iconic actor Tom Cruise will play Sullenberger in a move based on the landing.
“He became an alpha man to the public and that triggered in her, almost instinctually, the desire to mate with the alpha male,” said Dorothy Hayden, a Manhattan sex therapist. “He gets stronger, his personality gets stronger, his sense of self improves and that’s very sexy.”
While cautioning that the ideal of the noble protector exists as much in stereotype and fantasy as reality, psychologists said old-fashioned hero worship can provoke powerful feelings.
“When you’re married to someone for a long time, you start to forget what you were attracted to about them,” said Manhattan-based therapist Miro Gudelsky. “When you start seeing them through other people’s eyes as this hero, it can reignite things you felt previously or ignite new feelings.”
Sullenberger is an airline transport pilot, safety expert, and accident investigator from Danville, California. On Jan. 15, 2009, Sullenberger was the pilot in command of an Airbus A320 from New York's LaGuardia Airport en route to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina. The flight was designated as US Airways Flight 1549.
Shortly after taking off, Sullenberger reported to the air traffic controllers that the plane had hit a large flock of birds, disabling both engines. Several passengers saw the left engine on fire.
Sullenberger calmly discussed the possibility of either returning to LaGuardia, or attempting to land at the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. However, Sullenberger quickly decided that neither was feasible, determining that ditching the plane in a water landing in the Hudson River was the only chance to save the lives of everyone on board.
Sullenberger told the passengers to "brace for impact," then deftly piloted the plane to a smooth, gliding ditching in the river at about 3:31 p.m. All passengers and crew members survived, scrambling out onto the wings and onto rescue boats before the plane sank.
"It was very quiet as we worked, my co-pilot and I. We were a team. But to have zero thrust coming out of those engines was shocking—the silence," Sullenberger said later.
Once the plane was down, Sullenberger thoroughly checked the passenger cabin twice to make sure everyone had evacuated, before he retrieved the plane's maintenance logbook. He was the last to leave the aircraft.
After the crisis, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dubbed him, "Captain Cool." However, Sullenberger acknowledged that he had suffered some symptoms of posttraumatic stress for the first couple of weeks following the crash, including sleeplessness and flashbacks. Fortunately, his condition has greatly improved.
Sullenberger has said that the moments before the crash were, "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling" that he had ever experienced.
"One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I've been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience: education and training. And on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal," he said.
On Jan. 16, 2009, the United States Senate passed a Senatorial resolution honoring Sullenberger, his co-pilot Jeff Skiles, the cabin crew, the passengers, and the first responders who pulled everyone safely off the plane, or out of the water.
Sullenberger continues to be an international speaker on airline safety, and has helped develop new protocols for airline safety. Sullenberger is also the co-chairman of the EAA's Young Eagles youth introduction-to-aviation program, and is the author of Highest Duty, a memoir of his life and of the events surrounding Flight 1549, which was published in 2009 by HarperCollins.
— The Curator
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