Borrowed through a local Danville branch library, the book — reportedly on professional ethics — belonged to CSU Fresno. Realizing that the book was now swimming with the fishes, Sullenberger asked if the fees could be waived.

The library, sensibly, said why yes, they could do that for him.

Which means the next time you have late fees at the library, if you’ve got a good reason — a really, really, good reason, like successfully ditching an engineless plane in a near-freezing river and saving more than 150 lives –  they might be forgiven.