I would bet that if 100 pilots had to actually try and make that landing that 99 of them would fail, and most of the people would die. Have you ever heard of another water landing by a large jet that didn't result in multiple fatalities and the plane being torn apart??
I would agree with that. Consider this both Dan Marino and Cleo Lemon just "did his job" on Sundays, one is rightfully the HOF, the other will never be nominated.
However I won't put Sullenberger in the "truely heroic" category, as I would the firefighter who rushed into the WTC on 9/11.
To be a true hero (in my book) you must choose (can be a part of your job, but it must be a choice not something your are forced to do) to take yourself from a position of relative safety and place yourself in danger for the benifit of other or society at large. Firefighers do that. People who join the military do that (being drafted doesn't count, but once drafted volenteering for a dangerous mission does). Neil Armstrong did that.
What Sullenberger did was save his own neck. He as on the plane, if he didn't land it safely he would have died. Running out of a burning building (no matter how challenging it is to accomplish) is not heroic, it is saving your own neck. Running into a burning building is heroic.
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