Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger has been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, 17 years after the Miracle on the Hudson.

The ceremony took place on September 24 in Washington, D.C. Sullenberger joined six other pioneers in the Class of 2026, including NASA astronauts Shannon Lucid and Peggy Whitson, helicopter pioneer Ross Perot Jr., radar researcher William Bahret, inventor Leonard Michael Greene and educator John Odegard.

On January 15, 2009, Sullenberger and First Officer Jeff Skiles landed US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River after bird strikes disabled both engines. All 155 passengers and crew survived.

Sullenberger took part in the ceremony remotely by video. “My career was much more than one flight,” he said. “From a very young age, I knew I wanted to fly airplanes. That was the beginning of a lifetime following that dream.”

The Hall of Fame, chartered by Congress in 1964, has inducted just over 200 Americans. Sullenberger was honored not only for the Hudson landing but for decades of work on aviation safety, pilot training and public service.