Right man in the right place

New York: As a qualified glider pilot and a leading expert on aviation safety, Captain Chesley B Sullenberger III was the right man, in the right place, at the right time when Flight 1549 suffered a total loss of engine power.

In his 29 years with US Airlines, Sully, as he is known, has clocked up 19,000 hours of flying time, and has spent time as a flying instructor and an accident investigator.

Air traffic controllers described the "eerie calm" of their communications with Sullenberger as he informed them that he was going to land the Airbus 320 in the Hudson River. Colleagues later said they were not surprised when they heard who had been in charge of the aircraft. "He held his cool," said Rick Kurner, who has known him for 23 years.

Sullenberger, a father of two from Danville, California, owns and runs Safety Reliability Methods Inc, a company that advises on how to apply safety techniques learnt in aviation to other fields.

He is a visiting scholar at the University of California's Centre for Catastrophic Risk Management, and has been a safety consultant to Nasa.

His wife, Lorrie, said: "He is the consummate pilot. He is about performing that aircraft to the exact precision to which it is made."

Sullenberger is a former US Air Force fighter pilot, who flew F4 Phantoms from 1973 to 1980.

His neighbour, Candace Anderson, said: "You look at his training, you look at his experience, it was the right pilot at the right time in charge of that plane that saved so many lives."