A former fighter pilot was hailed as a hero last night after he guided his crippled airliner to a safe landing in the Hudson River in New York, saving the lives of all 155 people on board.

The pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who gave passengers the chilling command “brace for impact” was Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III, a 29-year veteran of the airline.

Captain Sullenberger, 58, served as a US Air Force fighter pilot from 1973 to 1980 and has also acted as an instructor and safety chairman for the Air Line Pilots’ Association.

He once wrote a paper with Nasa scientists on “errorinducing contexts in aviation”. Two years ago he started his own consulting business, Safety Reliability Methods Inc.

Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of New York — himself an experienced pilot — said that the captain had insisted on being the last to “abandon ship” after the emergency landing.

“It would appear that the pilot did a masterful job in landing the plane in the river and then making sure nobody else was left on board,” Mr Bloomberg said.

“I had a long conversation with the pilot. He walked the plane twice after everyone else got off and tried to verify there was nobody else on board.

“I also talked to a passenger who said he was the last one up the aisle and that he made sure there was nobody behind him.”

Fred Berretta, one of the survivors, praised the pilot. “It was an incredible execution. He was very calm and made a great landing,” he told CNN. “I was one of the last ones off the plane. I saw the pilot and some of the flight crew and I looked back and saw nobody else.”

Survivors described with amazement how one moment they were flying to Charlotte, North Carolina, and the next they were floating in the Hudson just off the Theatre District in Manhattan.

The Airbus A320 was six minutes out of LaGuardia airport with 150 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants on board when it suddenly shook and caught fire.

“I was sitting in 22A. The left engine just blew. Fire, flames, came out of it. I was looking right at it because I was sitting right there,” said Mr Kolodjay, another survivor.

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