“Even though we have a lot of safety layers in there, if all the dominos line up the wrong way, we can have, on rare occasions, a catastrophic event,” famed Captain Sully said on Good Morning America.
Thursday, January 30, 2025 6:50PM
Captain Sully Sullenberger joins Good Morning America to discuss the deadly midair collision between a regional passenger jet and military helicopter in Washington, D.C.
SAN FRANCISCO — Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger joined Good Morning America Thursday to discuss the deadly midair collision between a regional passenger jet and military helicopter in Washington, D.C.
Officials have said that out of the 64 people on the plane and three people on the helicopter, there are no survivors.
Captain Sullenberger, who is from the Bay Area, is known for the 2009 miracle landing on the Hudson River and is also the former U.S. Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization. On GMA, he gave his thoughts on how this crash could’ve happened.
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Sullenberger says that it seems apparent that at least one pilot was able to see the other and the air traffic control operator was not required to separate the two aircraft, leaving the pilots to visually avoid each other.
“Obviously at some point, separation was tragically lost,” he said.
He also explained the unique challenges of landing at Reagan National Airport because of limited runway space with no room for expansion.
“It’s considered a special airport that requires a bit more study to operate there safely because of the short runways, because of the proximity of other airports, and because of the traffic level,” he said. “It’s a high traffic, high density area. And lot’s of different kinds of traffic that’s mixed together.”
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Sullenberger said there’s so many things that have to go right every day in order to avoid disasters and have a “ultra-safe transportation industry.”
“We have in this country, 10,000 flights a day, 10.2 million flights a year. We operate them all safely. It’s hard,” he said. “It’s hard to have the diligence and dedication to adhere to best practices on every minute of every hour of every day, every week, every month, every year for a decade strong aviation career. That’s what’s required. Any lapse could potentially be fatal. Even though we have a lot of safety layers in there, if all the dominos line up the wrong way, we can have, on rare occasions, a catastrophic event.”
Sullenberger reminded people that the chances of being in an airline crash are extremely small and there are thousands of people who work every day to keep passengers safe.
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“Even though we have a lot of safety layers in there, if all the dominos line up the wrong way, we can have, on rare occasions, a catastrophic event,” famed Captain Sully said on Good Morning America.