Reports Confirm The Captain Is SRM Founder Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III

Here's a guy who may never have to pick up a bar tab ever again. His nickname is "Sully" and he is reportedly the Captain of the US Airways A320 that went down Thursday in near-freezing waters just off LaGuardia International Airport, shortly after departure.

Fate may not have been able to pick a better flyer for this emergency as Captain Sullenberger is a highly regarded aviator with extensive experience, and is also the President & CEO of Safety Reliability Methods, Inc. SRM is "a consulting firm that provides expert solutions to complex problems involving safety, high performance and high reliability."

Sullenberger's web site lists him only as a "captain for a major US airline with over 40 years of flying experience." It also mentions that he is a former US Air Force (USAF) fighter pilot, who has served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member.

He has participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigations. His ALPA safety work led to the development of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular. Working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists, he coauthored a paper on error inducing contexts in aviation. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Crew Resource Management (CRM) course used at his airline and has taught the course to hundreds of his colleagues. Sully is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (B.S.), Purdue University (M.S.) and the University of Northern Colorado (M.A.). He was a speaker on two panels at the High Reliability Organizations (HRO) 2007 International Conference in Deauville, France May 29-31, 2007. He was recently named a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

Several passengers say the Captain walked up and down the length of the aisle before abandoning it to rescue personnel... and the freezing Hudson River... to make sure everyone made it out OK.

Captain Sullenberger, wherever you are... if all is at it appears, the first round is on us. It looks like you deserve it.

FMI: http://safetyreliability.com, www.usairways.com