Sully says no to waste station near LaGuardia airport

The city’s construction of a garbage facility near LaGuardia Airport stinks, hero pilot Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger said on CBS’ “Early Show” Tuesday.

Sullenberger, who famously crash-landed a US Airways flight in the Hudson River in 2009 and saved the lives of all 155 people on board, is railing against the station because he said the trash will attract more birds. His plane went down after hitting a flock of geese, which crippled the engines.

“Putting a trash facility this close to one of the busiest runways in the nation just doesn’t make sense,” said Sullenberger, CBS’ aviation expert. “It’s really a terrible idea. It should be put much farther away.”

The city is already building the 100-foot-tall garbage transfer station on the College Point waterfront – about 2,200 feet from the end of an airport runway. A spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement Monday that the plan wouldn’t increase the risk of bird strikes and “anyone who says otherwise doesn’t know the facts.”

The Friends of LaGuardia Airport advocacy group has filed a complaint in federal court to halt the facility, set to open in 2013.