Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger – the pilot known for the “Miracle on the Hudson” after safely landing a US Airways flight in New York City’s Hudson river during a 2009 emergency – announced on Tuesday that he was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
“For now, this means a name may not come easily to me, I forget a story I have recently told, or I don’t sleep as well, but I am in the beginning of this long journey,” Sullenberger, 75, said in a statement. “This new phase of my life has challenged what it means to be of service. And the answer is to speak up. It is my hope that by sharing this, other families living in the shadows with this disease will feel they too can step forward.”
