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On Jan. 15, 2009, former Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger courageously landed a U.S. Airways plane on Manhattan’s Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. He was immediately hailed a national hero: former New York Gov. David Paterson called it “a miracle on the Hudson;” Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama thanked him for his courage; and he was honored at the 2009 Super Bowl. When he sat for his first television interview with Katie Couric talking about the "loud thumps" caused by Canadian geese hitting the plane, the pilot sounded calm, confident. But at home, he suffered. Although never officially diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, Sullenberger says it was “obvious” he had it. In the weeks following the landing, his blood pressure hovered around 160/100. For months, he couldn’t sleep. Reading the newspaper was a strenuous task — words blurred together. “I couldn’t shut my brain off,” Sullenberger tells Esquire. “I was constantly re-living, second guessing, what if-ing.”It was hard on his family, too. News satellite trucks parked outside their California home day and night. Sullenberger couldn’t cheer on either of his then 14- and 16-year-old daughters’ tennis matches without being asked for a selfie or an autograph. His wife, Lorrie, accused him of sharing himself too much with the public — and neglecting his family.“None of us chose this,” he says. “The fact that it was now all about this event, all about this story, all about, essentially, me … It actually made my (family) angry.“I instantly (went) from being anonymous, a very private person, to being this world recognized public figure. It changed my life, if not forever, for a very long time … I had to very quickly learn a new way of living an entirely new life.”It’s been 10 years since the crash, and Sullenberger still gets recognized most everywhere he goes. That day on the Hudson was immortalized when Tom Hanks played the pilot in the blockbuster film, "Sully."Today, Sullenberger, now 67, and his family have adjusted to their new life — and he’s finally come to terms with how to use his fame.On April 17, 2018, another pilot performed a miracle landing. Capt. Tammie Jo Shults landed a Southwest plane after an engine exploded, leaving a gaping hole in the cabin. Like Sullenberger, she was hailed a hero.She declined interviews in the immediate aftermath (to this day she’s only spoken to the media twice) and instead called Sullenberger, the only other person she felt would understand. “I told Tammie Jo that, based on my experience, the sudden notoriety was going to be its own challenge, but to look at it as a chance to have a voice to talk about whatever she wanted,” Sullenberger says. “I said, ‘You and your crew have done the best you could, and that will be your solace.’”At first, fame felt like a burden, but now Sullenberger feels a duty to guide pilots like Shults, who need advice, and a duty to the aviation community as a whole, which he does by advocating for airplane safety at conferences around the country. “That’s how I can be most useful,” he says. “My voice is, hopefully, the voice of reason. It's the voice of experience saying, ‘This is what I have learned in my life that's important.’”Shults is just one of tens of thousands of people who’ve reached out to Sullenberger since his miracle landing. Of the 50,000 letters he received thanking him, the memorable ones include a note from a Holocaust survivor said that to save one life, is to save the world. Another simply read, “Captain Sullenberger, good job, I want to buy you a beer. Albeit a cheap, domestic one.” Taped to it was a $5 bill.“I had that beer,” Sully says.All of the letters were donated to the Carolinas Aviation Museum, an adjunct of the Smithsonian, in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the U.S. Airways plane is also on display.Sullenberger was courted by Hollywood producers in the aftermath of the crash, but it didn’t seem right to capitalize on what could have been a tragic event. Instead, he wrote about it in diaries, which, he says, turned the landing into a part of his identity, a life experience, rather than something that happened to him. In October 2009, his personal musings were published in the form of a memoir, "Highest Duty." Six years later, on a Friday afternoon, Sullenberger received a call from producer Frank Marshall, who is known for his work on the "Indiana Jones" series. He had big news: Clint Eastwood was interested in turning the book into a film.Sullenberger felt it was the right time and these were the right people to bring his story to the screen. “Once Clint likes something, things begin to happen,” says Sullenberger. Ten days later, Eastwood was in the Sullenberger family living room, listing off actors who could play the pilot.“We didn't have a clear front-runner,” Sullenberger says. “I said, ‘I know someone I would love to see do this, but I — there’s no way they could. It’s Jimmy Stewart.' Well, Tom Hanks is obviously this generation’s Jimmy Stewart!”In August 2015, America’s sweetheart met America’s hero: Hanks and Sullenberger spent hours together in preparation for the role. “He felt an intense obligation to get it right,” Sullenberger says. “He said while the film was in theaters and in the public’s mind, he and I would be conflated, in a sense, thought of as the same. But once the film had run its course, I was going to have to go back to living the rest of my life and he didn’t want to screw that up for me.”So, Sullenberger kept a close eye on the screenplay during filming.“He walked me through it page by page, note by note, moment by moment without complaint or blanch,” Hanks told Esquire. “He accepted the vagaries of making a movie out of a historic event … He understood the balance of what needed to be done and what was possible to do. The fellow has the instincts of Joe DiMaggio in centerfield and Neil Armstrong in the Sea of Tranquility.“Remember this,” Hanks adds, “The plane did not crash into the river. No, Sully flew the plane to a safe, forced-water landing. Every soul on board wet but alive."Sullenberger and Hanks have remained friendly. Every few months or so, Sullenberger receives an email from the actor — they check in, make plans to catch up, talk about new movies.A year after the landing, Sullenberger hung up his aviator hat. He still flies privately with a leased plane, mostly on family trips or to speaking engagements on aviation safety. He’s been asked twice by the Republican party to run for office, which he calls a “great honor” but politely declined both times. He’s a Democrat and, besides, a campaign would put his family through another round of incessant hounding from the media.That doesn’t mean he’s shied away from speaking out about politics. After his decade in the spotlight, he knows when — and how — he wants to use his voice. In October 2018, Sullenberger penned a political think piece for The Washington Post, calling people to vote for leaders in the midterm elections who showed a commitment “to rebuilding our common values and not pandering to our basest impulses.” “I will make myself heard at the appropriate times when it's necessary,” he says. “I think that's a kind of a duty that each of us has. We can't be bystanders.”Photographs by Allie Holloway