No Today Show Interview for Sully

Legions of Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberg fans—not to mention the plain, ol' curious—were disappointed with news that the Flight 1549 pilot's interview with the Today Show was canceled. The interview was eagerly anticipated—the public's first chance to hear from the heroic pilot who made an incredible landing into the Hudson—but the U.S. Airline Pilots Association requested the interview be canceled and it's unclear whether it will be rescheduled. But there will be plenty of opportunities for Sullenberger: PR guru Howard Rubenstein told the Times that the former Air Force fighter pilot is a "publicist’s dream" (Rubenstein also envisioned lucrative book deals, movie pitches and product endorsements in his future"). Sullenberger and his family are headed to D.C. for the inauguration—and we envision that in a few days, his Facebook page will hit 500,000 fans.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on January 19, 2009 8:51 AM

Comments [rss]

ides_of_march

Not everbody is an attention-craving media whore. I can see how that's hard to understand in this celebrity-obsessed society.

JacqueMehoff

I've said it in the other post,

I hope he gets back to doing what he does best and that's flying. I'd wish NatGeo would show a marathon of Airline emergency or whatever and see how many pilots retire and how many go back to flying after an emergency situation.

OT, his wife is a MILF.

CR

Hopefully he'll do what's minimally required of him regarding interviews and then quietly return to his job.

tingo

The guy's a hero, and it should be left at that. Treat him like a hero, a man who happened to do the right thing at the right time and had courage. And luck.

And that's it. He's a human being. He shouldn't be turned into something else by todays enormous media machine.

It really illustrates how this country is desperate to find someone - anyone - to look up to and believe in. Look at the Obama frenzy. It's not so much public groundswell as it is trying to fill a cultural void. People are saying 'Sully for NTSB chairman' 'for senator', etc.

Maybe we should take this time to notice how we really don't have an abundance of candidates with such leadership or courageous qualities to fill those roles. And that's why we all suddenly want Sully to be our Daddy Warbucks. That's the bigger issue.

F1Mikal

Here is an EXCELLENT reason why the public should leave Sully alone, written by Richard over at Gawker. Highly recommended. Mega-Kudos for that piece.

http://gawker.com/5133340/why-we-should-leave-sully-alone?skyline=true&s=i

colonelcasey

I believe it's an interview with a "former Air force fighter jet pilot." Though it'd be interesting if they interviewed the jet itself.