Doreen Welsh re: retirement

March 3, 2010

Flight 1549 appearances/videos/posts
Capt Sullenberger, Doreen Welsh retiring
Capt Sullenberger re: retirement
US Airline Pilots Association re: Capt Sully retirement
Capt Sullenberger talks with press after landing in Charlotte

Doreen Welsh’s comments from her home TV station, KDKA Pittsburgh, and the local newspaper, the Beaver County Times. Couldn’t find video.

DOREEN WELSH, who has been a flight attendant since she was 19, still struggles with PTSD but said she will continue to speak about her experience.

I feel grateful for still being alive. [The opportunities of the last year] have been wonderful, but it was a high price to pay. And if I could go back, I would have rather just been flying and doing my job and not having gone through that, because I have to live with that for the rest of my life.

Beaver County Times’ MICHAEL POUND

Evidently Welsh retired a while ago but US Airways delayed the announcement to coincide with Capt Sullenberger’s, meaning Sullenberger planned on it a while ago. She misses the traveling but will continue to speak.

DOREEN WELSH:

They didn’t want us coming back to work until September or October, and by then I had started thinking about whether I even wanted to work as a flight attendant again. I have a little apprehension about flying, but I wasn’t sure whether I wanted that to be my last flight on the job.

But I decided I wanted to go out with a splash.

I’m going to be speaking. I’ve found in the last year that no one has really heard the whole story of the flight. They’ve only heard what’s been on the news. With that and everything that’s happened in the time since, I have quite a story to tell.

Welsh has spoken to her fellow crew members.

Everyone has taken some time off, and the two of us are retiring. At this point, there’s just one of the flight attendants who is still working.

No mention of which one. First Officer Jeff Skiles returned last Spring and today sat in the right seat for Capt Sullenberger’s last flight.

A final thought from Welsh:

I loved flying, l loved the people. I loved everything about the job. I’m a little sad to be leaving it behind because that was my life for 39 years.