Capt. Sully faces off with NY mayor in garbage debate

NEW YORK (WHDH) -- The "Miracle on the Hudson" pilot and New York City's mayor are on opposite sides of a new garbage processing facility.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to build the garbage facility next to LaGuardia International Airport, but Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger says the plan would attract thousands of birds and poses a danger to planes.

"I am strongly opposed to the city's construction of a garbage transfer facility next to LaGuardia's runway 31," he said. "This facility will attract birds into the path of oncoming flights," Sullenberger says in a new radio ad.

Mayor Bloomberg, who once awarded Sully the key to the city, has said the new waste transfer hub is an economically vital way to get rid of tons of garbage.

The mayor's office points out that a garbage transfer station was operated on the very same location between 1951 and 2001.

The non-profit group Friends of LaGuardia Airport paid for Sully's radio ads.

The group insists the trash station violates federal guidelines by sitting less than two miles from active runways, a flight path potentially shared by jumbo jets and hungry gulls.

Opponents hope the governor steps in to block the project.

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