Danville resident Chesly Sullenberger.

CONGRESS | 15TH DISTRICT | Rep. Eric Swalwell is an expert in air travel. The first-term congressman often touts his cross country flights from the East Bay to the nation’s capitol, but, when it comes to mysterious missing airliners, he reached out to a local icon.

Swalwell called Danville resident Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger for possible clues about the fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, according to Politico.

Sullenberger, who became a national hero in 2009 for safely landing a malfunctioning U.S. Airways plane into the Hudson River without casualties, offered his opinion on various scenarios, said Swalwell, including whether the plane crashed in the ocean or was flown to an unknown area.

“It’s much harder to ditch or land a plane in darkness. It’s very, very hard to do in daylight, as Capt. Sullenberger proved, but it’s damn near impossible I would imagine [in darkness].”