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Obama, who will be sworn in as president on Tuesday, spoke to Sullenberger for five minutes, a day after all 150 passengers and five crew on US Airways flight 1549 escaped alive and were able to step out of the plane into rescue boats.
"The President-elect told Captain Sullenberger how proud everyone was for the heroic and graceful job he had done in landing the damaged aircraft yesterday," said Obama's spokesman Robert Gibbs on Friday.
"The President-elect also thanked his crew and the many people on the scene in New York for ensuring the safety of everyone on board the plane."
Obama called Sullenberger from Philadelphia, from where he will board a ceremonial train to Washington on Saturday to kick off four days of inaugural celebrations.
Tributes are flowing for Sullenberger, who earlier received a call from President George W Bush and was awarded the keys to New York City.
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Here, is a nice story of rescue efforts of a plane load of passengers from US. What reminds me is the sad Ransom story of Indian Airlines Flight from Katmandu during Christmas days of 1999 when the pilot and the sad and sleepy administration of India (include the BJP governance in New Delhi) allowed the hijacked flight to take off from Amritsar Airport after refuelling there without a single effort to confront the hijackers to rescue the passengers. This is proof of Gross and Callous Negligence from our part. Later the so called Foreign Minister Mr. Jaswant Singh went to Kandahar to hand over millions of dollas as ransom to the hijackers and God Knows Who authorised them such a move to pay the tax payers' money to pay back their inefficiency in Amritsar. For the same reason newly wed Rupin Katyal lost her husband for he being bold enough to look at the hijackers on the face. Are these BJP Politicians really worth to the word "BHARATIYA" or to the very sense of being called Indian?