After
the
Crash
A survivor leaves corporate life and
raises millions for the Red Cross.
REUTERS/ERIC THAYER
by John H. Ostdick
62 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
RedCross_SM1503.indd 62
© 2015 SUCCESS. All Rights Reserved.
1/6/15 9:51 AM
Getting Everyone Out
Sanderson, seated in 15A, was the last
passenger off the plane. “I didn’t even think
of making sure that everyone got out when
we came to a stop in the water,” he says. “My
thought was, Get to the aisle, get up and get
out. But when I got up, I heard my mom’s
voice [she died in 1997] in my head, saying,
If you do the right thing, God will take care
of you. And that’s the moment when everything sort of shifted for me. It’s like that
Boy Scout moment [he was one] where you
do the right thing: I went to the back of the
plane to see if anybody needed help.”
Sanderson and the crew helped get
everyone out, and that’s when he ended
up in the drink. A rescue boat bumped
the plane, forcing it to take on water up to
his back. Sanderson, his left eye blurred
from jet fuel, jumped into the 36-degree
water because the wings were crammed
full of evacuated passengers. He swam to
a nearby ferryboat, which he grabbed onto
until rescue workers could haul him out of
the water, in the process becoming Good
Morning America’s riveting snapshot from
the “Miracle on the Hudson.” He was in the
water eight minutes.
Once he was pulled onto the ferry, rescue
workers “called ahead and told them I was
in the water and not in good shape. So
they had three people waiting for me at
the dock—two EMTs and a guy from the
American Red Cross with a blanket.”
Suffering from severe hypothermia
and unable to use his legs, Sanderson was
rushed to a triage unit and then to a nearby
hospital, where workers said he was in
grave danger of suffering a heart attack or
stroke. From crash to hospital took only 30
minutes. Because rescue workers had to cut
the clothes off Sanderson’s chilled body, a
Red Cross worker ventured into the night to
buy sweats for him to wear during television
© 2015 SUCCESS. All Rights Reserved.
RedCross_SM1503.indd 63
interviews. Soon Red Cross representatives
were meeting with his wife and children in
Charlotte, helping them cope and keeping
them apprised of his condition.
AP PHOTO/TANYANIKA SAMUELS/POOL
D
ave Sanderson believed he was
tuned into his version of the
American Dream. Then came
the airplane crash.
Sanderson had started his
career in the restaurant industry before
settling into technology sales, working
his way into a large-account position with
the California-based tech firm Oracle. By
January 2009, he was traveling more than
100 times a year and moonlighting as
director of security for motivational speaker
Tony Robbins. “I had a wife and four kids.
I was driven to make sure that I had enough,
to make sure that my kids could go to college
and have a decent life,” he says today from
his North Carolina office.
Because of his f renetic schedule,
Sanderson wasn’t always available for family
events and “didn’t give much more than the
bare minimum community-wise up to that
point,” the 54-year-old says. He donated
blood regularly; gave a little bit back to his
alma mater, James Madison University in
Harrisonburg, Va.; and served on the executive committee of his church.
On Jan. 15, 2009, the crash of U.S.
Airways Flight 1549—and the Red Cross
blanket, virtual and metaphorical—changed
all that. Sanderson was aboard, headed
home from a sales call. Shortly after takeoff
from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, the
airliner collided with a flock of geese, crippling the jet. The flight’s captain, Chesley B.
“Sully” Sullenberger III, ditched the plane
in the icy Hudson River and executed a
successful evacuation.
Dave Sanderson recuperates in the hospital
after the “Miracle on the Hudson.”
The Message of the Blanket
Sanderson often talks about the Red
Cross blanket he was handed that day,
about how important a symbol it became
for him. In speeches and appearances
for the emergency relief group since the
accident, he has raised about $7.5 million
for the organization. “What that blanket
has come to stand for in my mind is that
you’ve got to be there and be ready when
SUCCESS MARCH 2015 63
1/6/15 9:52 AM
After
the
COURTESY OF AMERICAN RED CROSS
Crash
something like this happens because no one
expects to go through a plane crash. No one
expects to be in a car wreck or fire, but when
they are, emergency response organizations
are there. One of the things I talk about
today is the power of resourcefulness and
being there and understanding
all the resources that
you do have. I never
opened the
blanket that
day. I could
barely move
that day, but
I still have the
blanket with me.
I opened it when
I got home.”
Pam Jeffers, then CEO
of the local Red Cross branch, met
him at the airport with his family. “We
developed a relationship because she was
taking care of my family, which was the
most important thing that happened in that
14-hour period,” he says.
Sanderson quickly returned to Oracle,
working hard but also questioning his
life priorities. “Before [Flight] 1549, I was
driven by trying to do the best I could, but
I didn’t prioritize my time for my family the
way I should have. I was also very aware
of all those people who served me and
the other 154 people that day, and I asked
myself, How can I give back?”
$10,000 to the group (named after the
Tiffany windows in the Board of Governors
Hall at Red Cross national headquarters in
Washington, D.C.), asked him to speak at
the group’s annual meeting in Washington.
“Dave Sanderson
turned the compassion
he received into action.”
“That was June of 2009…. There were
400 women and me. Of course, I know they
all looked at me like, Why is this guy in the
room? Right? Before I was done, however,
they had 400 people crying. That’s how my
deep Red Cross involvement started.”
A Growing Commitment
Since then he has made more than 100
appearances at Red Cross events.
“Dave Sanderson turned the compassion he received into action, and continues
to help those in need all over the country
by speaking at Red
Cross events and
What turns everyday people into heroes?
Find out @ SUCCESS.com/ordinary-heroes.
raising money,” says
Kay Wilkins, CEO
A month or so later, Jeffers asked of the South Louisiana Region of the Red
Sanderson to speak at her chapter’s annual Cross, who has worked with Sanderson on
fundraiser meeting in Charlotte, N.C. Six numerous occasions for Red Cross events.
hundred people attended, and the chapter
All the Red Cross has to do is ask,
met its fundraising goal. “Then Pam asked Sanderson says. “I will not say no. There
me if I would drop by an event at the mall were a lot of groups that touched a lot
that she was having for some of their of people that day on the New York and
donors, and I did,” he says. While he was New Jersey sides of the Hudson, but the
there, a representative of the organization’s Red Cross touched all of us, whether it
Tiffany Circle, women who have donated was just providing a blanket or somebody
64 SUCCESS MARCH 2015
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being there for us or, most importantly, for
our families.”
He shares that message with his children, now ages 13 to 22. “One of the things
I would want them to get out of what I do,
and I think they’re starting to absorb it, is
how can you impact somebody’s life in a
positive way?”
Sanderson’s wife, Terri, has been invited
to accompany him to many events worldwide since the crash, but she has attended
only once, a church function for young
people. “I think that’s when she understood why I was doing this,” he says. “So
she told me that ‘maybe it’s time to move
on [from Oracle].’ Within 48 hours, I did
just that.”
He established a consulting/speaking
c ompa ny, Dave Sa nder son Sp e a k s.
“I schedule everything around my family
time, and then I work backward into
what I do for a living and how I serve.”
He adapted the things he learned from
watching Robbins inspire people and
developed his own vision around a theme
of resourcefulness.
“I think that people are looking for
leaders. People are looking for people to
give them insight on when something
tough goes on in your life, how can you
get through it? And they’re looking for
people who’ve been through it, whether
it’s through the war or people coming back
from Afghanistan or Iraq or through a fire
or whatever. And that’s why these stories
will, I think, survive.” S
Contributing editor John H. Ostdick writes
from Dallas.
© 2015 SUCCESS. All Rights Reserved.
1/6/15 11:28 AM