Getty/Good Morning America
"Any lapse could potentially be fatal," said the Miracle on the Hudson pilot, opening up about the "unique" and "complex" situation at Reagan National Airport.
Chesley B. Sullenberger III, also known as "Sully," is speaking out about the fatal plane-helicopter collision above the Potomac River on Wednesday night.
Appearing on Good Morning America on Thursday, Sullenberger speculated on what could have led to the horrific crash -- as 27 bodies have been recovered from the fallen plane and one from the chopper. Per DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, there were 64 people total on the Bombardier CRJ700, while the Army Black Hawk helicopter had three soldiers on board.
Sullenberger, of course, is known for landing a US Airways flight on the Hudson River back in 2009 -- in what has since been dubbed the "Miracle on the Hudson" -- after a bird strike took out both engines.
While the details of what caused Wednesday night's collision aren't fully known at this time, Sullenberger said "we will learn from it and improve our system, change for the better" going forward.
"We have to realize how many things have to go right every day for us to have this now ultra-safe transportation industry," he told Robin Roberts. "We have in this country 10,000 flights a day, 10.2 million flights a year and we operate them all safely. But it's hard. It's hard to have the diligence and the dedication to adhere to best practices on every minute of every hour of every day, every week, every months, every year for a decades-long aviation career."
"Any lapse could potentially be fatal, even though we have a lot of safety layers in there. If all the dominos line up in the wrong way, we can have, on rare occasions, a catastrophic event," he continued. "And it's important to know that given enough time, given enough flights, given enough flight hours, eventually whatever can happen will happen, unless we work very hard to prevent every incident from turning into an accident."
Roberts then asked about the congested airspace around Reagan National Airport, which is apparently known to be a more challenging airport to navigate.
"It's a legacy airport, built a long time ago to different standards," said Sullenberger, who noted that while there have been improvements made to the airport, "There's not much room for expansion to make the runways longer or have larger safety areas."
"It's kind of a special safety airport that pilots need to have unique training on to fly in and out of if you're an airline pilot," he explained. "It 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. It's a high-traffic, high-density area. And lots of different kinds of traffic that’s mixed together."
"Anytime you have a mix, it makes things more complex," he shared.
When asked how to quiet the public's "apprehension" about flying, Sullenberger reminded viewers that "the chances of any one of us being in an airline crash is infinitesimal."
"We have a lot of people who work very hard every day and are very dedicated to keep us safe. We have thousands of people doing that every day — we just don't know who they all are," he told Roberts.
While speaking with the New York Times in a separate interview, the pilot also said he was "just devastated" by the crash, adding, "We have the obligation to learn from every failure and improve."
He also explained that the time of the collision could have been a factor.
"Nighttime always makes things different about seeing other aircraft — basically all you can do is see the lights on them," he shared. "You have to try to figure out: Are they above you or below you? Or how far away? Or which direction are they headed?"
"Everything is harder at night."
