The name of Captain Chelsey “Sully” Sullenberger is instantly familiar, not only to Americans, but to people around the world.
In January 2009, he was the pilot of US Airways flight 1549, which lost both of its engines when they were hit by a flock of geese while taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
With just minutes to act, Sully successfully landed the Airbus A320 on the Hudson River, saving all 155 souls on board – not to mention potential casualties had the aircraft hit the ground in the city.
The event, which became known as the "Miracle on the Hudson" is the subject of director Clint Eastwood's latest film, the biopic Sully.
After making American Sniper, which was a big hit, the 86-year-old actor and director wasn't initially convinced there was a film to be made from Sullenberger's book, Highest Duty.
“This guy Sullenberger did a fabulous job landing the plane,” he says. “All 155 lived. Where’s the conflict there?”
Instead, he found the drama in the fact that Sully (played by Tom Hanks) and co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart) were forced to defend their actions during an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board that threatened to destroy their reputations.
“Sometimes you have to look deeper,” says Eastwood, who discovered that Sully lived close to Oakland, California, near to where both he and Hanks come from.
Another attraction for Eastwood was his interest in aviation – he has been a helicopter pilot for 35 years.
“I was always fascinated by it as a kid, though I never followed through with it until I was an adult,” he says.
Eastwood even survived a plane crash in 1951, when a Douglas AD bomber he was travelling on, during a brief spell in the army, went down in the ocean near Point Reyes.
“Aviation is very exacting,” he says. “You need an exacting person, somebody who is really good with detail and who lives by the rules – and Sully is that kind of guy.
“He didn’t live by the rules in making the decision about landing in the Hudson, because he’d been through training. He never imagined himself doing that, I don’t think. He might have thought about it, at some time in his life, but all of a sudden you have to make a lot of things happen in a few seconds. And that’s what the story is about.”
Watching the ultra-modest Sully react under pressure, one of the themes of the film is what it means to be a hero.
“It is a ridiculously overused word, because it’s a shorthand, somehow, for accomplishment,” says Hanks, who believes Sully – like any pilot – is a hero for simply flying safely day in, day out. “Is he a bigger hero than the frogmen who jumped out of helicopters to pull people out of the water? They’re heroes too. There was an awful lot of heroism on display that day.”
Hanks had met Sully shortly after the Miracle on the Hudson, at a party during Oscar season. “He was like a combination of Elvis and John Wayne,” the actor says, with a laugh. But when it came time to portray him on film, Hanks witnessed that “exacting” side that Eastwood speaks of.
“He had the entire script and it was noted, highlighted, underlined, dog-eared, paper-clipped ... he had a lot of things he wanted to tell me about what was wrong with this script,” he says.
With these details ironed out, Sully the movie became a reality – with Eastwood recreating the crash-landing and evacuation with genuine emotion and terror.
“There were a lot of ‘what ifs?’ But he [Sully] did the right thing – a water-landing can be done if it’s executed right,” says the director.
Not that the real-life Sully is likely to get big-headed as the focal point of a major motion picture.
“As Tom says in the final part of the picture: ‘We all just did our jobs’ – and that’s the way Sully is,” says Eastwood.
Sully is in cinemas now
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
England squad
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Aaron Ramsdale
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Conor Coady, Marc Guehi, Reece James, Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Luke Shaw, John Stones, Ben White
Midfielders: Jude Bellingham, Conor Gallagher, Mason Mount, Jordan Henderson, Declan Rice, James Ward-Prowse
Forwards: Tammy Abraham, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Raheem Sterling
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
The specs
Engine: 3-litre twin-turbo V6
Power: 400hp
Torque: 475Nm
Transmission: 9-speed automatic
Price: From Dh215,900
On sale: Now
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Napoleon
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Abramovich London
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Honeymoonish
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Christopher Robin
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Haley Atwell, Jim Cummings, Peter Capaldi
Three stars
