You probably think you know everything about the "Miracle on the Hudson." It’s one of those frozen-in-time moments from 2009. Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger loses both engines to a flock of geese, glides an Airbus A320 into the freezing river, and 155 people walk away. It’s a clean, heroic story. But then Nathan Fielder—the guy who specialized in making the most uncomfortable television in history—decided to step in.
In the second season of HBO’s The Rehearsal, Fielder didn't just mention Sully. He became him. Or, well, he tried to.
Basically, the connection between Sully Sullenberger the Rehearsal and reality is a messy, bizarre, and surprisingly deep dive into how human beings prepare for the unthinkable. While the show is a comedy (sort of), it touches on a very real, very contentious part of the Sully legend: the simulations.
The Pilot's Code and the Evanescence Conspiracy
In the third episode of Season 2, titled "Pilot's Code," Fielder goes down a rabbit hole involving Sully’s memoir, Highest Duty. He notices a tiny detail most people skipped. Sully mentioned owning an iPod in the early 2000s. He liked Sheryl Crow. He liked Evanescence.
Nathan’s theory? During the 23-second gap in the cockpit voice recorder—a silence that has been analyzed by the NTSB for years—Sully wasn't just "flying the plane." Fielder suggests he was listening to the chorus of "Bring Me to Life."
It sounds insane. It is insane. But in the world of the show, Nathan uses this to explore the idea of a "rehearsal." If Sully had played out the scenario in his head a thousand times, was the actual event just the final performance?
What Actually Happened in the Cockpit?
Let’s look at the facts. There was a 23-second period where Sully didn't speak to Air Traffic Control. In reality, he was busy. He was doing what pilots call "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"—in that strict order.
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- 15:27:11: Bird strike occurs.
- The Silence: For the next 23 seconds, Sully is taking control of the aircraft, starting the APU (Auxiliary Power Unit), and trying to figure out if the engines have any life left.
- 15:27:36: Sully finally speaks to LaGuardia Departure. "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday."
Fielder's "theory" about the iPod found in the cockpit is a real fact—the device was recovered from the submerged plane. However, the idea that he was rocking out to nu-metal while gliding over the George Washington Bridge is pure Nathan Fielder fever-dreaming.
The NTSB Simulation: The Real "Rehearsal"
The reason Sully Sullenberger the Rehearsal is such a catchy phrase for fans of the show is that the 2016 movie Sully (starring Tom Hanks) revolved entirely around a rehearsal of its own. This is where the fiction gets a bit "Hollywood."
In the movie, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) acts like the villain. They run computer simulations that show Sully could have made it back to LaGuardia or Teterboro. They make him feel like a fraud. In a dramatic "rehearsal" in front of a public hearing, Sully demands they add a "human factor" of 35 seconds to the simulation. Once they do, every simulated plane crashes.
The Problem with the Movie Version
Honestly, the real NTSB was pretty annoyed by this. Robert Benzon, who led the actual investigation, famously said, "We’re not the KGB."
The real investigators weren't trying to crucify Sully. They were just doing their jobs. They did run simulations, but they were the ones who identified that the pilots needed a 35-second lag to account for the "What the hell just happened?" factor.
- The Computer Sims: These were never meant to prove Sully was a bad pilot. They were meant to see what was physically possible for the airframe.
- The Real Pilots: Pilots in the simulator knew exactly what was coming. They didn't have to deal with the shock of 150 screaming passengers or the smell of burnt bird flesh in the vents.
- The Conclusion: The NTSB ultimately ruled that Sully’s decision was not just correct, but the only one that guaranteed survival.
Why Nathan Fielder and Sully Actually Align
It’s easy to dismiss Fielder’s obsession as a joke, but The Rehearsal is fundamentally about the same thing Sully lived through: the "Human Factor."
Sully spent decades training. He was a safety expert. He had "rehearsed" emergency procedures in simulators for years. When the birds hit, his brain shifted into a mode where the "rehearsal" became reality.
Nathan Fielder takes this to a pathological level. He hires actors to play his friends, builds full-scale replicas of bars, and maps out every possible conversation. He’s trying to eliminate the "element of surprise" that nearly killed Sully’s passengers.
"Everything we at US Airways had done... prepared us to handle this particular challenge." — Chesley Sullenberger
That quote from Sully’s book is basically the mission statement for the show. If you prepare enough, can you survive the "crash" of a social interaction? Or a literal plane crash?
Actionable Insights: Lessons from the Hudson (and Nathan)
Whether you’re a pilot or just someone trying to navigate a tough performance review, the intersection of Sully Sullenberger the Rehearsal offers some pretty solid life advice.
1. Build in a "Surprise Buffer"
In the NTSB investigation, the 35-second delay changed everything. In your own life, don't expect yourself to react perfectly the second a crisis hits. Give yourself permission to have a "What just happened?" moment.
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2. The Power of "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate"
When things go wrong, we often try to talk our way out of it first. Sully didn't. He flew the plane first. Talked later. If you’re in a crisis, focus on the immediate mechanical task before you start explaining yourself to others.
3. Training is Just a Rehearsal for Instinct
You don't rise to the occasion; you sink to the level of your training. Sully didn't have a "miracle"—he had forty years of practice. Nathan Fielder’s show is a weird, distorted mirror of this truth. The more you "rehearse," the more your "instincts" are actually just muscle memory.
4. Verify the Villain
Don't always trust the movie version of events. The NTSB weren't the bad guys, and Nathan Fielder isn't actually a pilot. Understanding the nuance of a situation—like the difference between a computer simulation and a real human brain—is where the actual truth lives.
Sully didn't need Evanescence to wake him up inside. He had years of experience and a calm co-pilot. But Nathan Fielder’s bizarre tribute reminds us that underneath every "miracle" is a lot of very boring, very intense preparation.
To get a better grip on how professional pilots actually train for these "impossible" scenarios, you should look into the CRM (Crew Resource Management) protocols that Sully credited for saving the flight. It’s a fascinating look at how teams function when the stakes are literally life and death.