Tue, Feb 03, 2009
"We'll Make Him The Best-Paid Pilot At Virgin"
No stranger to the art of self-promotion, Sir Richard Branson
has found a way to capitalize on the recent hoopla surrounding last
month's ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in New York's Hudson
River.
The Los Angeles Times (well, the Times' Entertainment blog
-- Ed.) reports the "kabillionaire" Branson
recently made a very public offer to have Captain Chesley "Sully
Sullenberger (above) fly for Virgin Atlantic, Branson's flagship
airline.
"I'd like him to come fly for us," Branson told a reporter with
the New York Daily News. "We'll make him the best-paid pilot at
Virgin -- we'll give him double anybody else. He also can become
one of the astronauts in my intergalactic spaceship company. The
man can write his own ticket with me."
Branson spoke in apparent awe of Sullenberger's skill in
guiding his stricken Airbus A320 to a textbook water landing that
saved all 155 people onboard. "Every single thing he could have
done right, he did right -- from the second he made that decision
not to go to that local airport, to put the plane down in the
water, to the way he looked after everybody."
For his part, Sullenberger has largely avoided the media
spotlight cast upon him, and his flight crew. Besides granting CBS
News an exclusive interview (coming later this week) "Sully" has
made only a handful of public appearances. On Sunday, he and his
flight crew received a thunderous ovation during the pregame
festivities at the Super Bowl in Tampa, FL.
That apparent humility doesn't mean the US Airways Captain
doesn't appreciate a lucrative job offer when he hears it, however.
When told of Branson's offer, Sullenberger reported said, "That's
amazing... I hadn't heard that. I will be happy to entertain all
the things that are coming my way."
Given
Branson's past antics, it's really not very
surprising he made his offer to Sullenberger... though it is
somewhat surprising it took him nearly three weeks to do it...
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