When then-US Airways CEO Doug Parker traveled from Phoenix to New York after US Airways 1549, he left his briefcase behind in the parking garage of US Airways headquarters. They had to evacuate the building in Tempe thinking it could be a bomb.
That’s a great story, that I’d never heard told until Parker retired. Obviously he had a lot on his mind – one of the airline’s planes had just gone down into the Hudson River. But it turns out he had more on his mind that day.
Credit: Greg Lam Pak Ng, via Wikimedia Commons (image upscaled)
Parker joined former Delta and Northwest Airlines CEO Richard Anderson on Airlines Confidential this week for a conversation with retired Wall Street Journal airline reporter Scott McCartney.
And he revealed that when this happened – January 15, 2009 – he was pulled from a meeting with American Express. Amex was going to withhold credit card charges from the airline. That’s something that the Spirit Airlines processor was doing, right before Spirit entered bankruptcy.
A card processor knows that if an airline goes under they’re going to face consumer chargebacks, and they want a cash reserve to cover those. We were right in the midst of the Great Recession in January 2009. Lehman Brothers had collapsed four months earlier. And American Express didn’t want to get left holding the bag.
So, the way Parker tells it, Captain Sullenberger didn’t just save the passengers on that Airbus A320 bound for Charlotte that day. He was in the captain’s seat of a flight incident that may have saved the airline.
[E]arly 2009, we’re at US Airways and this is the Great Recession and it’s February (sic) and cash flow is low and it looks bad. We at US Airways, we have a meeting with a credit card processor. I think it was American Express. I’m pretty sure it was. They want to come in and we’re being told they want to talk to us about starting credit card holdbacks, uh, which as you mentioned, that can be the start of some really bad things that happen because you have to, you have to disclose that and others get worried. So this is really quite alarming to us and we’re getting ourselves all prepared for it. We get prepared for it. I’m there. [President Scott Kirby]’s there. [CFO Derek Kerr]’s there. Some others.
American Express shows up with a lot more people than we thought, not just their relationship people. So we knew we were kind of in bad shape as we go to start the meeting, just introductions. Our head of government affairs comes walking into the boardroom, who’s not supposed to be in this meeting. I wonder why he’s there. He hands me, he says, leans over, whispers in my ear, says, my daughter just called me and she says, we have an airplane in the Hudson River.
Oh my goodness.
That’s how I find out. So, and the boardroom is for us, that’s the operations control room for senior management. That’s where we’re all supposed to report. So as he says this, I’m like, And I look outside and I see here comes, you know, our operations officers and they’re waiting to get in the room. So anyway, we quickly turn on the TV. We see it. It’s actually on TV already.
And we tell the AmEx people, I got to clear, well, before we turn the TV, but anyway, I say, we got to clear the room. We have an incident. They leave. Of course, it’s national news within minutes.
And anyway, so they all fly back to New York or wherever they came from. And they never gave us the credit card hold back because of 1549. And they told us later that if it weren’t for that, they were sent there to tell us and to not let us talk them out of putting in place a credit card hold back.
We had all these great presentations about why we were going to be okay and you need to do this. They were there to tell us that we were going to do it, and it didn’t happen. because of 1549. So it’s one of the nice things that happened. Sully’s great. So Sully saved the airplane and saved the company…
Yeah, we’ll show you American Express. We’re going to put an airplane in the river. We did not do it on purpose. It was traumatic, but it turned out well.
Captain ‘Sully’ Sullenberger became an American hero for his piloting of that flight after a double bird strike, and Tom Hanks played him wonderfully on the big screen. The movie wasn’t great overall, but the actual flight scene was iconic.
Here’s the actual air traffic control audio:
January 15, 2009
3:26pm CACTUS 1549 departs LaGuardia Airport.
3:31pm CACTUS 1549 lands on the Hudson River.
A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official described it as "the most successful ditching in aviation history" pic.twitter.com/3PAaYCVWzi
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) January 16, 2025
And here’s Captain Sullenberger’s recollections.
Relive the minute-by-minute replay of Flight 1549, a day that demanded the best of humanity and teamwork. Join me in remembering this pivotal moment on its 15th anniversary. Part 2 coming soon. #CaptSully #News #Flight1549 #MiracleOnTheHudson #15thAnniversary pic.twitter.com/Aa11nx5IiB
— Sully Sullenberger (@Captsully) January 15, 2024
It all unfolded to quickly that flight attendants didn’t know the plane landed on the Hudson rather than the ground until they opened the door and saw water. And none of them knew just how financially precarious the airline was that day, either.
Sully was an inside job!
Doug Parker,: not the brightest candle on the chandelier., several cards missing from the deck.
good con, not so good CEO.
Those Canadian geese were in-on-it, clearly… (and by ‘it,’ I mean, both engines.)
Man, I hate unionized birds.
@Denver Refugee — Hey now, those geese were cleared by the NLRA… US1549 shouldn’t have crossed that picket line…
Amazing that POS Parker’s only playbook on how to run an airline his entire life was how to avoid bankruptcy or beg the government for money because he had ZERO ability to run a profit making organization!
Canada hates America but Americans have only known it since 2025. Their geese, on a suicide mission, almost took down a plane. That airline, now known as American Airlines, continues to be shut out of Canada, spurned by Air Canada and Westjet, only to partner with tiny Porter. Canada needs to be punished.
Another example of Canada attacking America is that they ban Americans from buying a house in Canada. No ifs, ands, or buts. Yet America lets Canadians buy houses in Florida or any other state, even the 51st state.
So American might now have competent leadership if not for The Miracle On The Hudson? Wow.
@derek — Nah, nearly all Canadians do not hate America or Americans, however, the threats by our President (to annex and to tariff), are clearly the primary source of recent tensions (if any). Make no mistake, there is not long-simmering bad-blood between these good neighbors. Ask occasional commenter @Steve M., who I believe is based in Ontario.
Let’s be clear: The actual people of both countries are not ‘attacking’ anyone. Your quite negative word choices and horrible presumptions are not reality. Unless your comments are merely in-jest (like some of mine can be), I think some of what you’re promoting is literal disinformation (likely by the Russians, who want to draw a false equivalency in attempt to legitimize their illegal annexation and attack of Ukraine.)
As to your ‘whining’ about foreign ownership of property within another country, wait, so, now you care about other countries’ sovereignty over their own laws/land? Huh. Odd flex, but ok.
That’s strange because all airlines were hurting because of the 2008 financial collapse and I didn’t think USAirways was in any worst shape than others. Soon afterwards the government came in with assistance which got the airlines through that rough period. It was AA that was in really bad shape because it had not gone through Chapter 11 to lower costs and renegotiate union contracts.
What year did USAir make a play for DL just to be told to get lost. Remember “keep My Delta, My Delta?”
Something not right about his story.
A team from AMEX travel across the country with a substantial negative announcement but vague agenda.
An “off airport landing” occurs and the meeting is stopped.
AMEX quietly goes away and doesn’t mention it again? AMEX feels bad for USAir ? Finances improve overnight? Usual after an incident, there is a going to be a negative financial response.
(BTW – the Canadian Geese were likely here illegally given our ridiculous rules and systems that makes it almost impossible to follow yet rewards the rule breakers)
Knowing how US Airways was a lackluster airline and was managed poorly already, The idiot Parker is, just made him look like an even bigger idiot.
@Brad Whitford — Those geese were here on ‘temporary protected status’ (TPS)… they faced a real threat of political persecution by the colder weather farther north. If you recall, the incident occurred in January. NYC is a bit warmer than Quebec, so naturally, it was a sanctuary… city… for those birds.
Pity U.S. Airways didn’t fail. Parker and his clown car of empty suits would never have gotten hold of American.
Of course, you conveniently ignored the fact that Parker mentioned that US Airways had the financial wherewithal to survive in spite of American Express’ misgivings. And he would know, since he had the hard internal financial data. But I guess that is to be expected when hate and vitriol appear to be the main forces that drive people.
@DesertGhost — Those negative emotions sure get the best of folks. I don’t share these others personal animus of specific corporate mercenaries like Parker or Kirby or Ed or whoever. They are overpaid, in my opinion, but, ultimately, they are doing jobs, and are not the majority owners, who I’d argue is more to blame, than anyone else, if companies go astray. After all, the only obligation is to earn them profits, often at the cost of workers, customers, everyone else. It’s a bit of a flaw that they don’t really have to care about stakeholders. At least the decent ones try to…
@ 1990
Nah, TPS because goose hunting is a big deal up north but not so much in NYC
@Jack the Ladd — Yup, their goose is cooked!
Next time you experience a bad flight flying on American Airlines, you can blame (or thank) Captain Sullenberger for ditching US Airways flight 1549 into the Hudson River after a bird strike. His remarkable water landing helped keep American Airlines afloat during a critical time when American Express was considering withholding credit card transaction payments, fearing that US Airways might soon go bankrupt.