Welcome everyone.
This is NY and TJ.
And this is actually a very special anniversary. I know that how many years have you been in the business covering events? And twenty five twenty five years, twenty seven plus for me, Can you recall TJ ever covering a plane crash where anyone survived?
That is, I can only remember one. I'm trying to think of another, um and that's tough right now, I can't come up with it right.
You're looking for a survivor, if anyone survived. But I think we all can remember fifteen years ago. That's the crazy part where there was a plane crash and you didn't just have some survivors or a survivor, but you had one hundred fifty five survivors. Everyone on board, passengers and crew survive. Of course, we are talking about the miracle on the Hudson, and I covered it. I was with another network, just from the desk as an anchor.
You were actually on the ground. You were at CNN when this all went I.
Was, yeah. So I was in Atlanta with CNN, which was where most of the shows are coming out of at that time, and it was an easy flight over to Charlotte because Charlotte is where that plane was headed, and so many folks on that plane were trying to get home, So they didn't make it on that flight. At least a lot of them caught the next one, and I was there to receive them at the airport
in Charlotte. When Yeah, those survivors, it's crazy to think you were just in a plane crash and then you ran and got onto the plane.
Some of them did some of that, not everyone did.
I don't know that.
Would you have done that?
Would you have jumped on a plane right after?
You know what? I think? So, because what are the chants? There's no way I'm going to be involved in two plane crashes.
Lightning doesn't strike twice back to back day.
There's no way. And plus I know how you are. I am sure you would have gotten on a plane. I am sure because I got to get home the schedule, you got a plan. I am sure you would have gotten on a plane.
Well, it is, and it continues to be an unthinkable miracle. Actually, of course, Captain Sully Sullenberg safely landing US Airways fifteen forty nine in the icy Hudson River. I think it was like twenty something degrees outside that day, a flock of geese in case you don't remember, took out his engines and forced a crash landing, and incredibly, Sully as he is affectionately referred, landed that plane on the Hudson
and everyone made it out okay. And it is a story that we don't want to forget because there aren't many stories like this that have this kind of ending. And it's not even just about the miracle of the landing. But I think what's really remarkable about this story is it fifteen years later. It's not the crash, it's what happened after the crash to so many of these survivors. When you go through something that is truly a near death experience, you don't live the same way that you
did before. And I spoke to one of the survivors way back, and I'll never forget this woman. She said to me, everyone at some point in their life has their plane crash. It's what you do with your life afterwards that counts. And so we have two of the survivors from that incredible miracle like fifteen forty nine with us today on this podcast, fifteen years later to the date, to not only talk about what they went through, but how this impacted and changed their lives forever, how they
live differently. So we want to welcome Jim Whittaker and Valley Collins to the podcast to honor what they went through and to talk about where they are are now because it is such an incredible journey to get to this day.
So welcome.
Thank you for being here, Jim and Valley, Hi, thanks for having us.
Hey, folks, thanks for the invitation.
Well, Jim, I'll ask you, we were just kind of joking here about whether or not we would have gotten on a plane right after that. Is this right you? I think you've told this story over the years. Not only did you get on a plane pretty soon, you were lit to RelA on the phone trying to book another flight, very very soon, maybe even while the plane was still sitting there on the hutst and you hadn't even gotten the dry land yet.
I have flown a few flights and I mistakenly thought US Airways would be ready for a crash and to rebook survivors. But I was wrong every single day. So yeah, when I first called US Airways at the time, US are Ways, it was very funny because I did call and say, hey, I'm a crash survivor. I'd like to
get on another airplane, and they didn't get it. They thought it was a sicker joke than normal, because it literally, by the time I called, had not even made it to the wire yet inside of the carrier, which was beyond bizarre. And then by the time we even got to the airport later that night, those folks at the counter still didn't know there had been an airplane crash. And all I had for an ID was a library card and we wanted to get on an airplane and go home.
But I'm still struggling of your mindset. You just went through something that traumatic and you don't even have time to process it before you were literally trying to get back on another plane.
Well, I was defective before I was only a little bit more defective.
That's a great And you know, Jim, I don't know that you know this, but I believe you and TJ might have met fifteen years ago.
That was, and I might have interviewed you because I was there at the Charlotte Airport waiting on that plane to land, and it was we were all waiting, so many reporters and photographers were there like, we don't know which ones are going to be the survivors, Like what does a plane crash survivor look like? We're like, oh, okay, which ones are going to be? It was not easy to identify, hard to identify you guys, because you were wearing Red Cross blankets as like a badge of honor
when you got out. And also most of y'all were half drunk. They were giving y'all free drinks on the flight on the way, which they should have, but you all got all You're the happiest plane crash survivors I'd ever seen.
Well, I think it was the Red Cross blanket that did it, tj. That may be a matter of opinion. Was but it was the free swag from having been a crash survivor getting a Red Cross blanket to some kind of gold star.
And Jim, you said your clothing was still wet when you got off that plane.
Yeah, I was being chilly, but it's true and Valley would know the same story. But by the time the plane stopped moving in the river inside was taking on water very quickly. So having survived to an airplane crashed, the next scare was I really don't want to drown floating down the river in the middle of the winter. So yeah, we were all plenty of wet on the inset before we got off the airplane and were rescued
to the shoreline. But then something about walking around the rest of the day in wet clothes, it's just really not a cool feeling. So I was free to go home.
I can only imagine and Valley. I was actually able to speak to both of you a couple of years ago, which was it's pretty awesome to be able to come back five years later and see how you're doing. But I remember I asked you what your seat number was, twenty six D. You'll never forget that, never as long as I live.
No, actually my seat was twenty sixty was my assigned seat. But after the birds hit, I got up in the aisle because the flight attendant was trying to get something behind my seat, and the empty seat next to me was twenty six E. Because we had one baby on boards, we had an empty seat, so the flight attendant told me to sit in that middle seat. So I started in twenty six DY, but I landed in twenty six E. I still claim twenty six.
D landed, landed.
How azing is that?
Landing on the Hudson not just your regular runway. I want to ask you both in Valley. I'll start with you. What is it like to hear the phrase coming from the captain of the plane brace for impact? What's the first thing you think? What's the first thing you do?
Well, the first thing I thought the gentleman at the window. He had been looking out and he told me we were going into the river, So I you know, he said, be ready, we're going in the water. So like right about the time that Sullenberger said brace for impact. So I'm just thinking airplane water landing. This plane's going to cartwheel, gonna bust into a lot of pieces. So, Valley, if you're conscious, just swim to the light. That's just what
I told myselone. I'm a person I always wmot have a plan, and that was my plan that if I was awake and conscious, just well the seat, you know, unbuckle the seat belt and start swimming towards the light. Now, before the brace for impact comment or you know, hea announcer from Sullenberger, I was pretty aware we were in a dire situation. My seat mate had told me there
was birds. I could smell the smoke. We didn't have any other thrusts, so, you know, in those moments, my thoughts were more of just about raising my children, not getting to see them hit all those milestones. I literally I sent my husband a text message that said, my flight is crashing, because I didn't want him to wonder for an hour or a day or a week, you know, to get confirmation. Because this was back, because it is
fifteen years ago. We didn't have Google calendars. We didn't keep up with what airline, what flight number, you know, we just weren't. We traveled all the time, so I thought, he doesn't even know I'm on board the plane. So those were That's kind of what I got done in the three and a half minutes from when the birds hit to EVA.
Three and a half minutes. Jim, what did you do?
Well? Valley's description was a good one. There was already plenty of pandemonium going on because remember from wheels up to impact with the birds. It was only ninety seconds, but everything was at full thrust. Typical day in the aviation business, right, So from the moment of the bird impact, pandemonium was quick to start. Of course, and then the command to brace for impact only made everything exponentially worse
on the inside of the airplane. And you know, there's there's probably not a set of words that does justice to the things that Value was talking about and what we both experienced, because that's just one of those worst moments where you just wouldn't be able to describe another human where people are so between total silence to praying out loud, to screaming and crying to cursing in anger. It was the fullest, braw range of emotions you could
possibly imagine ever hearing at one time. So it was it was as raw a moment as I've of course ever experienced in life.
But you you talk about the range of emotion and a range of thoughts, Valley was just mentioning talking about her kids, wanting to be there for our kids and raise their kids. But Jim in that and right ninety seconds the impact happens with the birds, and then another essentially ninety seconds and you're in the river. What though, at what point in those three minutes did it switch from oh my god, I'm going to die to oh wow, I'm going to survive this thing.
Well, everyone has their own experience, and everyone has their own faith tradition, so that the thought of dying wasn't really that so called scary to me. But I was way preoccupied because I was the dummy. They got to stand by seat, so I was sitting next to the woman with the baby.
I was really.
Preoccupied by a nine month old that was practically as big as his mother, crawling everywhere. So for me, that whole experience was really really small in the fact that it was between two humans that had never met one another before and a mother that was separated from her husband and another child on board and clearly terrified in not knowing what to do with this rambunctious baby. So me, like a fool, being a father of five, said hey,
let me hold your baby. And she was incredibly, incredibly courageous. As I'm sure you all have heard the story before, is she actually surrendered and gave up her child to someone else that she thought, maybe because he was a nut, was going to somehow be able to protect this child as we were going in the river.
Wow, that is incredible. I'm curious, Bally, what actually goes through your mind? Did you believe you were going to die and do you see your life flash before you do? Things seem like they happened in slow motion. What were those three and a half minutes like?
Well, to echo what Jim said, I don't think I was so scared of dying. I've always been a person of faith, so I remember thinking, well, God, this is your will. I accepted. I'm not crazy about it, but I accept it, and I do at that point. I was thirty seven years old that day and three of my four grandparents were still alive, so the one grandparent that had passed, I just thought, well, he's going to be there waiting on me. So I wasn't so scared of dying. I was just more selfishly. I mean, it's
fomo at the max. Okay, I was so sad about all the things I was going to miss out on in my family's life. That's what really made me so sad. You know, I'm not a perfect mother, but I am their mother, and my children were four, six, and nine on that day, so I knew it's going to totally impact their life significantly for the rest of their lives.
Not that I didn't think Steve would do a great job finishing racing them, but I was just I was just wrecked about all those big moments, all those big milestone moments I was gonna miss.
No, Valley, tell me, past fifteen years, what have been the milestone moments? Would have been the moments that, Oh my god, I cannot imagine I would have missed this.
Oh gosh, I'm gonna get teaching them all three to drive a car, drive a stick shift. In our house, your first car is a stick shift because you can't text and drive a stick shift. You know, none of your friends can drive your car up. Insurance is cheaper, so I mean, you know, those were moments of flattery, cheers for tears, so, you know, teaching them to use
a little grit to drive a stick shift. Going in kindergarten, my young guest, I mean, it's first day of school, the first day of high school, the proms, the graduations. I mean, one's one's out of college, one's going to graduate from college this this May, and my baby just went to college. You know, Being able to take them to I mean you you name it, dance recitals, baseball games.
The list is long. And I think because of being a part of this experience I have, all those milestones are all more sweet to know that I am here to see them.
Where are they in college? Are they Tennessee volunteers too?
Well? One is a Tennessee volunteer. One is a graduate of Wake Forest in North Carolina, the senior this year. He is a he's all of ball and my baby is a Baylor Bear. He goes to school in Waco, Texas. He's sick of bears. So they've got three different you know, three different paths, and I wouldn't want it any other way.
I wish you could have seen Jim while you were talking. He was clapping, he was cheering, He even had firework behind him. At one point. He was just echoing everything you were saying. We're going to hear more about what this experience has done to change your life, how you've lived differently. We're going to hear all about that when we come back.
All right back here now. Jim Whittaker A Valley Collins, two of the survivors of Flight fifteen forty nine, the crash in the Hudson, the miracle on the Hudson. I guess is what we should all be referring to it as these days. That's how we know it. But all one hundred and fifty five people on board that flight, of course survived Captain Sully. It's been cool to hear Valley here. She keeps referring to him by his full name, Sullenburger. You have a different relationship well than the rest of
us do we call him Sully? But that's cool to hear. Jim, let me ask you, what what was the pre miracle on the Hudson, Jim Whittaker like, as opposed to the guy we are sitting here talking to now.
Well, again, both versions are defective. However, the one before and there's still now today. Long time lifelong road warrior, thousands of flights, thousands of nights and hotels, traveled all over the country, all over the world, and so the whole experience of traveling, that is, and take off and so forth and so on, that was as commonplace as driving to work. But extinguishing characteristic that made this different.
And I've been on plane planes before where an engine had gone out or something had occurred, but never had I been on an airplane at takeoff that had gone from full thrust to being a glider. No noise, no engine, no nothing. And I just described that to say that. Of course, for someone that had been on thousands and thousands of flights, that was a new, immediate just and immediate clicks in the back of your brain, like something's wrong. This is a big problem, obviously, So it flash forward
to now. Since then fifteen years it's scary to say, but not only hundreds, but I've continued doing the same thing. But to the points that Valley made earlier, that of all those life experiences that came there after, the graduations and grandchildren and the events that were special, there is an awareness to realize that I would not be having this experience but for the hands of others and the grace of God. And that is as we race through all of our lives. That's probably something I know. I'm
often easy to forget about. Hey, I should pay attention to be present in this moment, because it's a gift that I'm here right now. We have I had thought that twenty years ago. Of course not.
But we need to remind folks, you weren't supposed to be on this plane. You were a standby passenger.
Is that right? Well, again, back to the defectiveness. I made a lot of foolish choices in life, but one of them was getting done early in Manhattan, running to the airport again being the road warrior, trying to get home early. Life's going to be great. Maybe I'll even catch dinner. And that was a very interesting choice to get all stand violists and get the window seat next to the baby in the back.
Jim and I have some similarities in that it's interesting that you put us on here together because I flew, maybe not quite as much as Jim, but I flew a lot with my job as well. But I always flew Delta, so that's where I had all my you know, platinum first class bump up, all my perks. But that's this trip was like a last minute. So the US
Airways trip ticket was like eight hundred dollars left. So I remember thinking, well, i'll save my company that money, for go my little frequent flyer perks, and I'll go US Airways today. So that's why I ended. So I wasn't supposed to be on that flight either, epnically, that's not normally, and that's how I ended up on the last row with the empty seat that was there because
Jim had the baby in his rum. So it's now, you know, and I think both of us kind of have a faith based and you're like, well, why was I there? What am I supposed to learn from that? What am I supposed to take away from that? Because there were passengers on our flight that took that flight every week, you know, that was just their way home to Charlotte every week, but not the case for me.
Do you think you were supposed to be on that flight? Now, Valley, I know you said you're a woman of faith, and do you think that it was something that was faded to be? And you said you learned a lot. What was the biggest thing you learned?
Well, first of all, I'm not small enough answer the question of as if fate is I supposed to be there? I'm not supposed to I have zero idea. I have a lot of learnings I took away, probably the very well two things. I'll say, after you sit in a moment where you really think you're gonna die and then all of a sudden you don't, there's a there's a sense of life purpose and life responsibility, you just feel that onus even greater. Okay, I'm kind of in the
bonus round of jeopardy. You know, how do I how do I get this right and make the most of it. So that's that's one of the things. Probably the biggest learning I took away was just the power of perspective that you know, no matter just not just what the small stuff. As cliche as it sounds, you know, every it's It's interesting when when I was before takeoff, I was talking to the gentleman at the window and we had this empty seat in between us, and they kept
telling us it's this full flight. Well you keep waiting for who's the person that's going to PLoP down the empty seat and from the gate, and there was still this empty seat, and I looked at him, I'm like, well, this must be our lucky day because here we've got all this elbow room to Charlotte. Well, you know, little did I know how lucky it was going to be in next seven eight minutes. So so I think I'm just trying to every day's a lucky day, even if
it's not a great day, I'm still just lucky. We're all lucky to be.
Well, you say you're not. You know clearly you're smart enough to answer the question. She did ask again what
you were trying to say? But you all helped me. Everybody, I'm sitting here with Robes with a breast cancer scare in her life to where she thought she was going to die, and still quite frankly, every six months he's waiting on a report or going and you're still wondering about how much time you have left Valley, Jim, both of you all, you all weren't supposed to be on the flight you got you stand by passenger here, you
ended up flying. You were trying to save some money for your company, which I'd never recommend that, but still, but for both of you all all, maybe all three of you got to help me understand here, that's not just who chalks that up to just coincidence. We've always and I've gotten more into it that later in my life about the universe giving you signs or follow there are signs out there? What do you make Let me start with you, Jim, since clearly you're you're going to
be smart enough to answer that. But but how do you make sense of I'm not supposed to be here. She's not supposed to be here, Robock. Even a lot of people would argue, maybe not supposed to be here. Her cancer was called earlier but we all are sitting here now on this call, on this podcast together, Jim, how do you or do you even try to make sense of something like that.
I'm going to help you, teacher. I'm not going to leave you hanging thanks to help you, I would say to that, and trying to be serious, is my perspective has changed in that I can't explain it either, and probably nor can any of us about why did this happen? Or what if that kind of is a lost cause. But what we can say is, well, I am still here, and what more purposeful, meaningful impact can I have on the lives of those that are most close to me
and depend upon me? And then the next concentric ring out from that, and the next concentric ring out from that. So for me, at least, what I've tried to be a better tried. I fail a lot, however, but I've tried to be a better parent and spouse and brother and son to my parents, So that trying to be
that better individual. But more importantly, I've also learned to balance a good point as I've become much more, maybe with age two, more influential as a mentor in other folks lives that are going through challenging circumstances in their personal lives. I've found a lot of reward and satisfaction in that and trying to help others navigate their circumstances, which seems maybe traumatic at the time. And I can always say, yeah, but you weren't on a plane crash, correctct.
And I'm sure his family and friends, like my family and friends, kind of get tired of me always putting the perspective on. One of my dearest friends in National college'll go. I said, Okay, do you want my real opinion? Do you just want me to do you just want me to side with you right now? Or do you want me to give you the perspective of And She's like, no, I just want you to decide to me right now.
What's the biggest change that both of you made in your life once you survived and got back home. I'll start with you, Jim.
Well, that's a bad start because I don't have a great story to tell you. I couldn't say to you, I wouldn't tell you some fabulous lie that says I was a new person the next day when I woke up, I wasn't. I was still the same me. Sure as I've already tried to describe. But it wasn't a Road to Damascus moment and I somehow woke up and I was some new human and had this different perspective online
I didn't. I was certainly more thankful and grateful, and I am today and I am today, But I'm not some different human because I wasn't an inauthentic person before. I'm just more appreciative for the gifts that I've been given now that I'm still here for obviously spending the time week right now talking about something happened back then, but I'm more grateful for the gifts that I've been given in my life and have been since then.
Pally like Jim, I wasn't all of a sudden the different person. I was a pretty positive, friendly, pride be kind person before this. In some ways I was not as I've always been, very strong, very confident, a type a leader type person, not very fearful. I would say, I became a little more fearful, and you know, in I'm much more myself like myself now fifteen years later than I was let's say a month later or six
months later or a year later. You know, when I first got home, I thought, Okay, you know, I'm good. Let's go right back to life. Let's, you know, have these two busy careers with traveling and three small children. And then about a month in, I was just I couldn't do it. I could not keep all the balls in the air. I couldn't. I'd be on a conference call, I can remember what people said, I'd start typing an
email and I'd forget my train of thought. I, you know, should be so happy to be alive, but I just felt so sad. And you know, one of the challenges I'll say for me, I can't speak for all the passengers, but you know, it was the good news story of the year. People. It was so cool, it was so exciting, it was so miraculous, and people were like, wow, wasn't that amazing? You're like now, But it was also really scary, and it was it was traumatic. I hate I know
that word gets used a lot, but it was. It was traumatic and it was scary. So all of a sudden, I became this person that was driving down the interstage like, oh no, that Semi is gonna come over and they're gonna crash into my car. We're I'm going to die, or I wouldn't put something on my calendar for two weeks later because I'm probably not gonna live two more weeks, you know. So the fragileness of life became I became hyper focused. Or we we have a boat, our kids
water ski behind the boat, they'd fall. I'm like, get back, get them because there's gonna boat comes gonna knock. You know, it's gonna kill them. I mean, I just became very, very aware of how fragile life is and how quickly it can change. Now time has helped that neurosis, if you want to call it, but I still lack a little bit of the moxy confidence that I had. And that's okay because I think it makes me appreciate and be a little yeah, just being more appreciative for the time that I have had.
You you use the word traumatic. Obviously, that's what I guess everybody on that plane would say they experienced a traumatic experience. But you also said, like, over time or immediately after, you had times where you felt so sad. What was that about.
I think that's just one of the symptoms of PTSD. You know, as I went through my therapy, I learned that a lot of times it doesn't present immediately. It's you know, a month, six weeks, two months after, just when the shock wears off. I don't want to speak for Jim. Probably it was real easy for get on Hunt that plane that night because he was just still in shock. We were all still in shot. My first flight was five days later. That wasn't as hard as
the flights three months later, six months later. So I just I I don't I don't know. It was just I was just in shock. I mean, it just it just took. It just takes. It just takes time. I wanted the I've spoken to audiences over the years about this experience, and you going back to like why was I there? While were we there? When I have when I've had like a six three marine veteran come up to me with tears in his eyes and say thank you for talking about PTSD, thank you for putting it
out front. That's probably one of my moments that I was like, maybe that's why I was there because I think better now. I don't mean to go off on a tangent but or get on a soapbox, but I think even now, more than fifteen years ago, we talked more about mental health than we did and just I tell people, you know, I looked just fine on the outside. I walked off that plane aside from being in soaking wet clothes, you know, nothing was broken. I wasn't bruised,
I didn't walk with a limp. I mean when my husband looked at me, I look like the same old valley, but I was not the same old valley. And honestly, it took a little while for us, even as a couple, to you know, figure out the new me if you will, and I hope in some ways I'm a better version of myself, not as good a version of myself as before I've boarded that blot.
I really appreciate your your honesty and your transparency, because when the unthinkable happens, when the thing that is almost impossible actually happens to you, that fear is real, and fear is a powerful thing. And I can't imagine not
being afraid after going through something like that. When people say, oh, what are the chances, you can say, actually, if it's less than one percent, if it happens to you, it's everything, It's one hundred percent, right and living then your life knowing that your greatest fear could actually happen is crippling in moments. How do you get past that? Jim, did you feel the same way at all?
Well, this is maybe a different tangent or not for where you all thought the conversation would go. But I have found this fascinating, yes, because of this. Afterward after the crash, like Valley, I went to a number of groups that wanted to hear this story, and they wanted to hear someone talk about it. So I had done a fair amount of public speaking at work, so I went on the rubber Chicken circuit of cividans and quantises and professional groups and all that stuff, and I talked
to a number number of groups. And every time, somewhere in this talk, which was just conversational like we're doing now, but I had a few props right, people would start crying and I thought, man, I mean, I know I'm a bad presenter, but this is painful. And there would just be these people sitting there and these very small intimate groups, you know, and they would just be crying.
And then afterward they would come up and they get similar to what Valley described and say things like thank you and I've always been so fearful this was going to happen to me, this total consuming fear of flying, to what you talked about earlier, Amy about fear is this incredibly powerful ruling emotion in our lives about I fear these things, and I've had these things happen to me.
And this is the whole experience of just retelling that story to people seems to have unlocked their own feelings of the things that they fear and been able to give them a little bit of maybe not comfort, but courage that they can survive whatever moment they are in now.
It's just been a fascinate That period of time was fascinating to me, and to Valley's point, it probably helped me too, unknowingly so kind of process those emotions in my subconscious minds, you know, just work through all of that by contributing and being with other people and talking about.
The topic well, making people feel not alone. Knowing that other people also can talk about their fears and face them and acknowledge them is a huge gift that you've given so many people. We're going to talk more with Valley and Jim when we come back.
Hi.
I'm Kate Hudson and I'm Oliver Hudson and at last I checked for.
Siblings and this is sibling revelry.
We're full blood siblings, the only full bloodling.
And our family well not in the world, I mean.
No, in the whole world.
This is it, like no one anyway. We're back with season four. I can't believe it's Yeah.
I'm so excited, bigger and better than ever. You might be asking yourself, what is sibling revelry?
Yeah, well we just made it up. There is no sibling revelry. It's reveling in your sibling.
And it's fun because we've decided to open it up, you know, to really like all kinds of different siblings. And it's going to be an awesome season.
So listen to Sibling Revelry on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or.
Wherever you listen to paup God. Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Jim Whittaker and Valley Collins, two of the survivors of the Miracle on the Hudson, and we are looking back not only what happened fifteen years ago, but what that has led them to today and who they are today because a near death experience. I mean it affects people differently. I want to ask you, VALI would you give the experience back if you could.
If I had my choice, I would not board that plane again. I'm so thankful for what I've learned, what I've taken from it, the gift of perspective and gratitude. But I guess maybe giving me that sense of fear that I'd never had before. I kind of enjoyed the thirty seven years before. It is not not really being scared of many things.
Other than Snake's I love it. You'd get it back, how about you, Jim?
No, I would. I would relive it again. I had the benefit of which is even weirder in not today's talk. But I was on another aircraft that happened to catch on fire, so I was in I was a pro by the time this rolled around. And the fact that it is scary to go in the river. But if you're in a small aircraft and there are only two of you on it and it catches on fire, now that is a sense of emergency.
Jim, you need to take some road trips. Brother, you got you gotta stop flying if I want to plan.
You're on I'm getting off.
Oh this is no money, because I was on one struck by lightning with an emergency landing before the Hudson, and then the December of two thousand and nine, the same year, I was on one that lost nose steering, so we had to have the full emergency cabin preparedness, emergency vehicles line.
And the runway. I mean, some people are like, well, what are the chances I'm calling? Well, I've kind of been in three incidents. Is it's just so funny that we're booked on here at the same time, you know, my mom's like, well, yeah, crazy.
And for the record, just to make it clear, you all still happily and willingly board planes. Yes, in fact, you just got off one recently.
I don't know about happily. I do it because I want to go where I want to go. I don't love it. I'm never gonna love it like I did before when I was just you know, naive. But it is the safest way to travel. I do tell people the most dangerous part of on air plane trip is the drive in your car to the airport. You know, if we all heard about every fatal car wreck in our country every day, none of us will get in
our car. It's just with plane crashes. When something happens, it's a lot of people at once, and everybody hears about every one of them.
Apparently, it's the safest way to travel unless your name is Jim Whittaker or Valley Collins.
I want to ask y'all, did the Tom Hanks movie get it right?
You know, the Tom Hanks movie, which I loved, the movie Sully. Tom Hanks could read the phone book and I would be entertained. So I thought the movie was great. It's definitely from Sullenberger's active I don't think they got the evacuation scene in the movie right personally. I mean in the movie, and I haven't seen the movie in a lot of years, but I remember that there's there like here, have a blanket, it's cold out there, like the flight attendants that, and it just it just wasn't
that way it was. It was chaotic, It was a lot of water, it was a lot of I mean, you're how chaotic it is trying to get off the plane when you're parked at the gate, So you know, you can imagine. So that's the only part of the movie. If I was going to take issue with but it didn't upset me. I thought it was a great It was a great fielm but you jim right it was.
It was definitely a Hollywood version of a feel good moment, for sure, and one takes liberties when you're making a Hollywood movie. There were the other movies as jule Me, the docu drama, and the documentary Class. There have been several other ones made, but the Hollywood version I think was more centered on entertainment because Valley is exactly right as we were talking about earlier. There's just no way to one, it wouldn't be entertainment, it'd be a horror show.
And then two, there's just no way to capture how a raw and nasty All of that was at the time that it was occurring, before everyone was off the airplane and on water taxis, and the event was kind of passed right that first that period of time in there, in the crash sequence and the rescue, that was pretty ugly, right.
I can't I cannot even imagine.
My scariest moment and the whole event was after we landed and I went to the galley and there was a hole in the APU fell off the tail of the plane, and you know, we couldn't get out the back exits and the water was rushing in to about my shoulder level, and thinking I was going to drown.
That was really my scariest moment, was just being in that galley with that cold water and realizing we're not getting out the back and people are still trying to come to the back, you know, and I'm thinking this this gentleman's gonna mow me over, you know, trying to get people turned around to move towards the wings. So that was really, for me, my scariest moment.
Yeah, just hearing you describe that, you just get chills from head to toe. That is just worst case scenario, thinking you're trapped in this plane and the water's rushing and I'm curious, fifteen years has passed. Has there been a day where you haven't thought about it?
Valley? Oh? Sure, Yeah, there have been plenty of days where I have not where I have not thought about it. Especially, like I said, time helped. You know, in the first year or two years, No, there probably wasn't a day I didn't think about it. But as time has gone on. But if I do catch myself in a moment of you know, kind of sweating the small stuff or getting annoying because you know, my boys left all their underwear
all over the floor or something. You know, we'll be like, all right, I'm still the moms here that gets to pick up the dirty underwear. And that's what life's about, is the real stuff. And I'm just happy I've been here to enjoy the real stuff. But I don't think about it every day.
Jim, speaking on the real stuff, Why does it take? You know, I speak to people all out there. We've all known people in our lives and you all are two examples as well. They go through something traumatic and then they make a change in their life. People have something, they hit rock bottom and they make a change in their life. Something has to happen. Can you speak to Jim to people and they all have their own experiences, of course, but how would you encourage people to not
wait for that moment. Don't wait until you have a near death experience, don't wait until you hit rock bottom. Today is a day you can start to appreciate more and love more and be kinder and do what Valley says, you know, don't sweat the small stuff. What would be your words of encouragement for folks to not have to have a plane craw a literal plane crash before they make changes.
Man, I'll take an easier question for one hundred. That is a heavy one. I don't know that I know the right answer, but what you just described resonates with me too at a personal level, because that bouncing on the bottom happens for a lot of us. Whether you have problems with substance abuse or mental illness or whatever those things are, the bouncing on the bottom is often the path that many of us have to go through because you don't know which way is up until you
found the bottom. So to expect someone, or to hope for someone, or to desire for someone, to be able to be self aware enough to know that, hey, man, this is not working, this is not the best you. Perhaps that is such a giant decision that I find that most people don't make that decision because it requires so much courage and it's going to be painful most likely. So the continuation of doing nothing is usually easier than doing something. And that's why that bouncing off the bottom
seems to work for some folks. I have found in my life at least. That is a really, really tough question. But back to being able to talk to folks, is I have found it incredibly rewarding to be talking to others who have their own set of life problems and they at least can get some type of positive reflection from the fact that, oh, well, wow, that happened to you, and here you still are and you seem to be
marginally okay. Maybe my circumstance isn't so bad. Maybe I could make better choices, maybe I will choose to do That's been an incredibly powerful for me.
I love that. Do you all do anything special to honor this day, Valley?
Not really? I mean on the ant like the one year anniversary, the five year anniversary, the ten year anniversary.
I went.
I went to those events. It's always it's amazing to me how many of my friends and family I'll get more text messages, emails on this day than I will on my birthday. It's kind of it's kind of crazy, so I always acknowledge it. Do I have a specific tradition, No,
I just keep living that day whatever it brings. I mean, in fact, this year, on the fifteenth anniversary, one of the changes I made in not really a change I made in my life, but I did quit working full time a few few months after the experience, went part time and then quit working all together just to raise
my family. But I started to participate more in nonprofits and trying to help other people, because I do think when you're struggling yourself, what makes you feel better than to try to help somebody else who's less fortunate than you are. And so I am the chair of a nonprofit that works with Mount Irshed babies in Uganda and on today today is our board strategic planning retreat. So I'm with some people. They're very like minded with me
with helping those that are less fortunate. So I'm going to market today trying to in some small, small way help someone that is a whole lot worse off than I am.
Jim, you mark the day as well.
My answer is much more practical than balance, which is one of the many reasons why I'm so fond of. But I'm going to the airport on Monday because that's where I belong.
You're you're flying on the anniversary day, Yeah, Valley, have you done that at all? Flown on the anniversary day? Any of the past fifteen years.
Yes, I have flown on the anniversary date. I did after one of our I did I have flown on the anniversary date.
Yes, I wouldn't expect I expected from defective Jim, but I wasn't expecting you Valley.
Speaking of only down at one time, I'm only doing all. We're taking a bus to the retreat.
So well, Jim Valley, thank you so much for joining us. It has been incredible to be able to talk to you all about what you went through, how far you've come, and you have a long, beautiful life to look forward to, and thanks for inspiring us along the way. I appreciate how really you kept it, how down to earth are you're not trying to make it be anything more than what it is. And the lessons you learned along the way. We appreciate it, and we took notes, and thank you all.
And I don't know do you do you say happy anniversary on an anniversary like this?
I don't know.
Yeah, so happy anniversary old.
An anniversary fifteen years on the fifteenth.
So there you go. Well, happy anniversary, y'all, and thank you for being with us.
Thank you bye, all the best.
Thank you so much. Yeah, hey, everybody, they're saying by each other there. You can of course continue to follow the show here on Instagram, at Amy and TJ podcast. That was a great one. It's great to talk to folks like that who have that type of respective and can give us all a little bit. I'm still fascinated. I can imagine her husband the text my plane is crashing, she says. She sent him that message as they were
going out. She had three minutes to do it. I guess I can imagine getting that type of message from you.
I hope to never send one like that, TEJ. Yeah, that'll be on my list of goals things not to do.
Put a sweet emoji to it, Maybe it'll light it.