Hero pilot

AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews

In the reporting just after the US Airways plane made the remarkable emergency landing in New York’s Hudson River, a former pilot analyzing what happened said in those brief, critical moments, “There was no margin for error.”

I can’t imagine the pressure.

And by all accounts, it looks like this pilot was perfectly cast by providence to be in that seat.

In one day, pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger captured the heart of the Big Apple and became an international star.

The Danville man who safely landed a US Airways jet into the Hudson River on Thursday, saving the lives of all 155 people on board, has become the “flying stud” according to headlines in the New York Daily News — which, in a reader’s poll, asks whether the keys to the city, a ticker-tape parade or the Medal of Freedom would be the best thank you.

And yet, those who know him best say….this is just who he is, and what he does.

Sullenberger;’s wife, Lorrie, spoke briefly to the gathered news gatherers, and said she wasn’t too surprised to hear that it was her husband who guided that plane to safety.

“This is the Sully I know,” she said. “I always knew this is how he would react to something.”

“He’s a consummate professional,” she added…

Joe Green, a neighbor for seven years, said “It’s not unusual that he could be a hero, because he has been my hero all the time.”

This is truly an ‘Ode to the Common Man’, though with uncommon valor.

“He’s such a calm person,” Green said. “He is exactly what he performed.

Excellence, in a word.

Neighbor Frank Salzmann said the Sullenbergers are an active family that does much good for others, including feeding the homeless.

Salzmann said Sullenberger inspires confidence.

“He’s just that kind of person… If anybody could (land that plane) it would be him.”

People can’t get enough of this story.

“Hemingway defined heroism once as grace under pressure and I think it’s fair to say that Captain Sullenberger certainly displayed that yesterday,” said [New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg, who will present the crew with a ceremonial key to the city.

“This is a story of heroes, something right out of a movie script,” said Bloomberg…

No, this is a story of heroes, out of which they make movies. We need heroes. Out of this incident emerged many.

Especially the split-second hero.

Michael A. L. Balboni, the state’s deputy secretary for public safety, worked his way through the room to introduce himself. He shook the pilot’s hand, looked him in the eye and thanked him for a job done brilliantly: the precise, soft, lifesaving setdown of a 50-ton jetliner in the Hudson River.

“He said to me, in the most unaffected, humble way, he says, ‘That’s what we’re trained to do,’ ” Mr. Balboni said. “No boasting, no emotion, no nothing.”

Just grace.