Plane crash survivor tells conference attendees how event shaped life

US Airways Flight survivor speaks at LeaderCon

NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. WAMPLER Dave Sanderson, a survivor of US Airways Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009, speaks Thursday at the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce’s third NWA LeaderCon, a regional professional development conference.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/J.T. WAMPLER Dave Sanderson, a survivor of US Airways Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009, speaks Thursday at the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce’s third NWA LeaderCon, a regional professional development conference.

ROGERS -- A plane crash taught Dave Sanderson the meaning of mission-focused leadership. Now he hopes to share that message with people across the country.

Sanderson is a survivor of US Airways Flight 1549 that ditched into the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009. The flight has since been dubbed The Miracle on the Hudson.

Award winners

Each year the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce honors three people during the Northwest Arkansas LeaderCon/Tomorrows Leaders Business Conference.

• Don Soderquist Servant Leader: Mike Duke, retired president and CEO of Wal-Mart

• Trailblazer Award: Cameron Smith, president of Cameron Smith & Associates

• Tomorrow’s Leader: Nick Nabholz, business development officer for Nabholz Construction

Source: Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce

He shared his story with about 400 people Thursday at the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce's annual Northwest Arkansas LeaderCon/Tomorrows Leaders Business Conference at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers.

"It's all about driving toward the mission," he said, sharing a message he heard for a pair of leaders a decade apart.

His first brush with mission-focused leadership came when he had the opportunity to speak with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf in 1999. Sanderson asked the four-star general how he was able to win the first war in Iraq so efficiently and quickly.

He said Schwarzkopf told him the goal was to get Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, and to do that he had to focus on that one mission and not let anything else disturb him.

American ground troops declared Kuwait liberated Feb. 24, 1999, just 100 hours after the ground attack started.

"Ten years later I heard the same message," Sanderson said of a conversation with Chesley B. Sullenberger III, pilot of Flight 1549.

Sullenberger is credited for using his fighter pilot and glider training to land the plane on the Hudson River after a flock of birds were sucked into the jet's engines.

"He said he had to focus on the mission," Sanderson said. "Now I get to share that message."

Sanderson got an early taste of how his story could impact people shortly after his return home to North Carolina. His church asked him to speak at a pancake breakfast that drew nearly 600 attendees. Following his speech, an 88-year-old woman told him she was questioning if there really was a God.

"'You are physical evidence there is a God. Thank you,' she said to me," Sanderson said. "That changed everything. That is why I travel all over the world, to give people hope."

The former software sales manager for Oracle said he's at halftime in his life. Sanderson is a full-time speaker after spending four years splitting his time between his career and sharing his story. He quit his job at Oracle on Jan. 31, 2014.

"It was costing me time with my family," he said.

He and his wife, Terri, have four children and he can schedule most events around personal commitments, he said.

Steve Clark, president and CEO of the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, said Sanderson's message of life reassessment was something he wanted to share at the annual leadership conference.

"We get to hear his experience and how it changed his life. It also people a chance to reflect on their own lives," Clark said.

Melinda Oliver, sales manager of the Springdale Residence Inn, said she left Sanderson's speech feeling inspired.

"We all use survival skills every day, but you never know when you will really need to use them," she said.

NW News on 04/03/2015

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