One day he saved 155 people.

Today he faces a battle that no ability to command a plane can stop.

In January 2009, Commander Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger entered aviation history.

A few minutes after taking off, an impact with a flock of birds put out use both engines of the US Airways 1549 flight.

The plane no longer had the necessary thrust to reach an airport.

There were only a few moments to decide.

With extraordinary clarity, Sully chose to attempt an emergency amalgam on the Hudson River in New York.

It was an almost impossible maneuver.

Yet he did.

All 155 people on board survived.

From that day on, the world remembered that enterprise as the "Miracle on the Hudson".

Years later, however, the famous commander told that he had to face a very different challenge.

He was diagnosed with an early form of Alzheimer's.

He explained to realize, sometimes, to forget some names, to repeat stories already made and to notice changes in memory and sleep.

Today he devotes time to his family, addresses the disease with sincerity and invites us to speak openly about the difficulties related to cognitive decline.

Alzheimer's can change many aspects of life.

But you can never erase what Sully did on January.

There are gestures that remain imprinted in collective memory much longer than any individual memory.

And the world will continue to remember the pilot who, with cold blood and courage, transformed a tragedy announced in one of the most extraordinary rescue operations in aviation history.