<Tr> <Th> Rank </Th> <Td> Captain </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Awards </Th> <Td> Time magazine's "100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons" (2009), Master's Medal from the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, Key to the City from the City of New York, Outstanding Cadet in Airmanship and Jabara Award for Airmanship from the United States Air Force Academy Chris Matthews' The Hardball Award Officier of the Légion d'honneur </Td> </Tr> <P> Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III (born 1951) is an American retired airline captain celebrated for the January 15, 2009 water landing of US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan after the plane was disabled by striking a flock of Canada geese immediately after takeoff; all 155 people aboard survived . Sullenberger is an international speaker on airline safety and has helped develop new protocols for airline safety . He served as the co-chairman, along with First Officer Jeffrey Skiles, of the EAA's Young Eagles youth introduction - to - aviation program from 2009 to 2013 . He retired from US Airways after 30 years as a commercial pilot on March 3, 2010 . In May of the following year, Sullenberger was hired by CBS News as an Aviation and Safety Expert . </P> <P> He is the co-author, with Jeffrey Zaslow, of the New York Times bestseller Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters, a memoir of his life and of the events surrounding Flight 1549, published in 2009 by HarperCollins . His second book, Making a Difference: Stories of Vision and Courage from America's Leaders, was published in May 2012 . He was ranked second in Time's "Top 100 Most Influential Heroes and Icons of 2009", after Michelle Obama . </P>

The pilot that landed in the hudson river