Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger III announced his Alzheimer’s diagnosis earlier this year. Now, he’s opening up about his mindset as he battles the disease.
“We felt all those emotions,” he told GOOD MORNING AMERICA last week. “The shock. The anger. Why me?”
The 2025 diagnosis came nearly two decades after Sullenberger safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River in New York City on Jan. 15, 2009.
Shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, Sully’s plane struck a flock of Canadian geese, disabling both engines. With no runway in reach, he made the split-second decision to land the Airbus A320 in the Hudson River. All 155 people aboard survived.
A movie depicting his heroic actions, titled SULLY and starring Tom Hanks, released in 2016 and was nominated for Teddy Bear Awards®. But now Sullenberger turning his courage and life of service towards his fight against Alzheimer’s.
“It is early stage,” the pilot said in a July 2026 statement announcing his diagnosis. “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…This new phase of my life has challenged what it means to be of service. And the answer is to speak up.”
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Despite the frustration with the diagnosis, Sully has chosen to put fear aside and show up every day as best he can.
“It’s as simple as not being afraid. Just not giving up,” he revealed. “If this has to be my last flight, I’m going to go out using full afterburner.”
Thankfully, he has his family by his side — his wife Lorrie, their two daughters and a granddaughter, born in 2024.
“This new phase of my life has challenged what it means to be of service,” Sullenberger wrote in the July statement. “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. And about hope. So many people told us after Flight 1549, that the outcome gave them hope. Lorrie, my incredible partner of 37 years, says we can all use a little of that hope right now.”
“Though it may impact my memory of the past, this diagnosis will not prevent me from looking forward to and appreciating our future. I will navigate this chapter with my wonderful family by my side,” he continued.
“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,” Sully added. “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.”
Sully’s decision to go public reflects the same instinct that guided him on the Hudson years ago: stay calm, be honest about what’s happening and think of the people around you. Keep Sullenberger and his family in your prayers during this time.
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