Chesley B. Sullenberger was the pilot of the plane that carried perhaps the most luckiest accident bound airliner in the history of aviation. The 150 odd passengers aboard the US Airways flight had a miraculous escape as Sullenberger piloted the engine-less plane on to the Hudson river and saved all aboard the plane from a certain death. Highest Duty is his account of the incident and insight into what he thinks contributed toward making the decisions he made on that fateful day.
Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters
Author: Chesley B. Sullenberger
Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 1 edition (May 11, 2010)
ISBN: 0061924695, 978-0061924699
If you have ever traveled in a plane, you know nothing can be more traumatizing than realizing that your plane is hurtling down to a an imminent crash. This eventuality is the last thing you want to think every time you board a plane. Yet, although small, the probability exists. With multiple planes vanishing mid air in recent years, the dread of an air accident is always fresh in our minds.
The author begins with a few devastating accidents and impresses the hopelessness associated with an air accident. And you realize that the outcome of the accident of US Airways Flight 1549 is no less than a miracle. But in a rational world miracles don’t happen. The passengers were lucky to have Sully in the cockpit.
The book does not solely focus on the 3-5 minute flight time. Capt. Sullenberger talks about everything: his love for airplanes as a kid, his training in the US Air Force Academy, his missions as an Air Force pilot and his experience as the commercial pilot. It was this training and experience of flying for nearly 20,000 hours that made the miracle possible.
Any modern machine of the day is only as good as the person at the helm. Highest Duty tells you story of the person in the cockpit of Flight 1549. Readers get a glimpse of the man’s achievements and his troubles in domestic life. Loss of his father to depression gave Sully a deep sense and value of life. Would another pilot do the same thing that he did? Make the same calculations and make the same decisions? No. The passengers were lucky that they had Sully and that he made the decisions that he did. It was not just the training or just the experience that counted, it was also the man. Above everything else, Highest Duty is about the man and how he soared in the hour of need.