Famed airline pilot Sully Sullenberger reveals Alzheimer’s diagnosis

Capt. Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger, the heroic pilot of the “Miracle on the Hudson,” says he has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

“I am in the beginning of this long journey,” he wrote on his website on Tuesday. “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.”

Sullenberger rose to fame in 2009 after safely landing a US Airways flight in New York’s Hudson River — saving 155 lives — after its engines struck a flock of geese.

He retired in 2010, but continued to be a voice for aviation safety and bettering the lives of pilots. Throughout his career, he worked as a commercial airline pilot, an accident investigator and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations’ civil aviation organization.

The story of his emergency landing was told in the 2016 film Sully, starring Tom Hanks.

“Over the years, when people would ask about the successful outcome of Flight 1549, I would say that ‘courage can be contagious,’ and on that day it helped everyone band together to get everyone off that airplane successfully,” he wrote.

“Now we need that courage to battle this disease. I am now part of a larger community with many of you, and we will be courageous together.”

Sullenberger wrote that this next phase of life has “challenged what it means to be of service” but that for him “the answer is to speak up.”

He also credited his doctor for opening his eyes to the neurodegenerative disease’s prevalance. 

“This disease, he has told me, spares no age group and impacts millions of people around the world. It is the unwanted visitor at the door.”

Alzheimer’s destroys brain cells, causing thinking and memory to decline over time. It is the most common type of dementia according to the Canadian Alzheimer Society.

Statistics Canada says as of 2024, approximately 750,000 Canadians were living with Alzheimer’s disease.