'Miracle on Hudson' pilot Sully retires

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger has flown his final flight.

The pilot who landed a US Airways plane safely on the Hudson River last January said Wednesday he is retiring after 30 years and plans to spend some of his time pressing for more flight safety.

"My message going forward is that I want to remind everyone in the aviation industry — especially those who manage aviation companies and those who regulate aviation — that we owe it to our passengers to keep learning how to do it better," he said at a news conference shortly after his last flight landed at Charlotte Douglas International Airport.

Sullenberger officially retired at a private ceremony in Charlotte, with fellow pilots and other US Airways employees.

Sullenberger, 59, joined US Airways' predecessor airline in 1980.

His final flight, number 1167 from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to his base at Charlotte Douglas International Airport took just less than two hours. It arrived 17 minutes ahead of schedule.

Sullenberger flew Wednesday with his co-pilot during the Hudson landing, First Officer Jeff Skiles. As they walked off the plane, people in the airport recognized them and applauded.

Sullenberger said he plans to spend more time with his family and will write another book. He will also continue to talk to lawmakers about raising minimum qualifications for pilots and work to lower the maximum number of hours pilots are able to work in a single day.

Flight attendant Doreen Welsh, 59, who was on Flight 1549 when it landed in the Hudson, also officially retired Wednesday. Welsh, 59, joined US Airways' predecessor airline in 1970.

All 155 passengers and crew survived the emergency river landing in January 2009 when the a flock of Canada geese was sucked into the plane's engines minutes after taking off from New York's LaGuardia Airport, headed for Charlotte.

"Each generation of pilots hopes that they will leave their profession better off than they found it," Sullenberger said. "In spite of the best efforts of thousands of my colleagues, that is not the case today."

He said about a half dozen of the passengers on Flight 1549 joined him on his last flight.

Since the famous flight, Sullenberger has testified before Congress regarding pilot safety, given speeches about education and written a book, "Highest Duty."

He became a member of US Airways' flight operations safety-management team last September.

A US Airways pilot with as much experience as Sullenberger makes $130,000 to $150,000 a year. Sullenberger told Congress last year that his pay was cut 40 percent in recent years and his pension was terminated and replaced with a promise "worth pennies on the dollar" from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The cuts followed a wave of airline bankruptcies — including two at US Airways — after Sept. 11 and were compounded by the recession.