“It was many people rising to the occasion,” Sullenberger said at the time.
Sullenberger returned to flying eight months after the crash and worked until his retirement in 2010, according to People.
He wrote two books after retiring, was a safety aviation advocate and became a diplomat under the Biden administration.
Sullenberger was most recently mentioned in Nathan Fielder’s second season of “The Rehearsal,” in which Fielder spends the second season of the show becoming a pilot while trying to figure out what’s been causing plane crashes.
“Capt. Sullenberger became a symbol of calm, courage, and selfless leadership when he safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in 2009, saving the lives of all 155 people on board,” The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America said. “Those same qualities are evident in his decision to speak publicly about his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.”