Hudson hero Sully Sullenberger reveals early-stage Alzheimer's diagnosis
Sully Sullenberger said he has early-stage Alzheimer's after more than a year of memory changes. The 75-year-old pilot says he wants to help families feel less alone.
Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who saved 155 lives in the Hudson River landing of 2009, has been diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. In a July 14 statement, the 75-year-old retired airline captain said he received the diagnosis in August 2025 after noticing memory changes for more than a year.
Sullenberger said the condition has already shown up in small but unsettling ways, including forgetting a story he had just told, struggling to recall names and sleeping less well. He identified Dr. Gil Rabinovici of UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco as his doctor and said the news came through his work with Rabinovici. Sullenberger said he and his wife, Lorrie, have been navigating the diagnosis together, and he referenced their granddaughter as he described the path ahead.
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates more than 7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. CDC data cited by CNBC estimates the number of Americans age 65 and older with the disease at 6.9 million in 2024, when Alzheimer’s was the sixth-leading cause of death among people in that age group. Early-stage Alzheimer’s can include the kind of memory lapses Sullenberger described.
Sullenberger said he was sharing the diagnosis in part to help other families living with the disease feel less alone and to use his public platform to raise awareness. His public-service career has stretched from the U.S. Air Force to commercial aviation, accident investigation and service as U.S. ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization. After the Hudson landing, he used the attention to press for aviation safety measures, including increased pilot training, more pilot rest, the two-pilot rule and safety technology.
The 2009 emergency landing became known as the “Miracle on the Hudson” after US Airways Flight 1549 struck a flock of birds shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport, lost both engines and landed on the Hudson River in less than four minutes. All 155 passengers and crew survived. The episode was later dramatized in Clint Eastwood’s 2016 film Sully, starring Tom Hanks.
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