CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger was five years old when he dreamed of flight and being a pilot.
He saw the future not while he was asleep but when he was quite awake, the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight captain clarified to the 200 people who gathered to honor him at Renaissance West STEAM Academy in Charlotte on Thursday.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have an aviation museum named after me,” he said before quipping: “Not when I was alive.”
Moments earlier, while seated on stage, Sullenberger placed his right hand on his heart as Ric Elias, CEO of Fort Mill-based Red Ventures, said the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte was immediately being renamed as the Sullenberger Aviation Museum.
They hugged as the crowd stood in applause.
Elias was among 155 people on U.S. Airways Flight 1549 that Sullenberger and his crew safely landed on the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009, saving all aboard the New York-to-Charlotte plane. Soon after take-off, a flock of geese knocked out two engines, forcing Sullenberger to glide the craft into the frigid Hudson River, The Associated Press reported..
Elias recalled thanking Sullenberger at the time “for saving all of our lives,” to which he said the captain replied, “I was just doing my job.”
“That stayed with me for a long time, Elias said.
He didn’t see Sullenberger for another 10 years, Elias said, and when he did, “there were so many things I wanted to say.”
Yet no conversation was needed in the end, he said.
“We shook hands for a good 45 seconds, and we didn’t say a word,” Elias told the crowd. “I consider that the greatest conversation I ever had.”
To honor Sullenberger, Elias donated $1 million alongside $500,000 from Red Ventures’ Lonely Planet to the museum’s $31 million campaign for a new 105,000-square-foot home beside Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
Charlotte-based Honeywell contributed $1.5 million. A Honeywell-produced auxiliary power unit played a critical role in enabling the Airbus A320 aircraft to touch down safely in the Hudson River, museum officials said.
And Bank of America gave $1 million as sponsor of the museum’s Miracle on the Hudson exhibit. The bank had nearly two dozen employees aboard the flight.
Only $2 million remains to be raised, said Marc Oken of Falfurrias Capital Partners. Oken is chairman of the museum board and its capital campaign.
Miracle on the Hudson exhibit
The multi-building campus is expected to open by the end of the year featuring flight simulators, interactive exhibits and STEM education programs. The museum will open at the airport’s historic WPA/Douglas Airport Hangar.
Reaching those in traditionally underserved communities is vital to the museum’s mission, museum president Stephen Saucier said Thursday.
The Smithsonian affiliate also will permanently house the “Miracle on the Hudson” exhibit, including the plane, which previously drew more than 74,000 visitors a year, museum officials said.
Sullenberger said he initially hesitated when Elias told him that museum leaders wanted to rename the museum after him. Then he considered how STEM and other museum programming could possibly inspire students to pursue engineering and science-related careers, he said.
“If I lend my name to this museum and inspire the next generation, I’m all for it,” he said.
