Ex-prof: Pilot's glider experience might've helped

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By WSBT 24/7 News

Story Created: Jan 17, 2009 at 1:01 PM EST

Story Updated: Jan 17, 2009 at 1:59 PM EST

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.(AP) — A former gliding partner of US Airways pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger says the hero's experience flying gliders might have provided an edge in landing his crippled Airbus A320 jet safely in the Hudson River.

Retired Purdue University aviation technology professor Charles Holleman says he flew three flights with Sullenberger on July 1, 1973.

The two piloted a plane used in launching a glider. Holleman was a member of the Lafayette Soaring Society, and Sullenberger was a glider pilot as well.

Holleman tells the Journal & Courier of Lafayette that Sullenberger might have been able to safely land the jet without his gliding experience, but that experience might have provided what he calls "some very slight edge."

Sullenberger earned a master's degree in industrial psychology from Purdue in 1973.

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