HUDSON LANDING - WOW!
In the good old days before 9-11 made such things impossible, I had the great good fortune to spend many, many hours in the cockpits of jetliners on long overseas flights.
I was consistently impressed with the pilots and engineers. To a man, they were very, very smart, funny, interested in practically everything, outspoken, straight ahead in their expression and steely calm and clear about what they were doing.
It is apparently a standing mantra amongst such people that long-haul jet flights can best be described as "20 seconds of sheer, white knuckle terror, followed by 10 hours of excruciating boredom, followed by 20 seconds of sheer, white knuckle terror."
If that wasn't clear, what they are saying is that modern jet travel consists of the major scares of take-off and landing, interrupted by the numbing many hours of auto-pilot and checking that you are successfully flying from designated and assigned point A to B to C and pretty much through the alphabet.
What US Airways Captain Sully Sullenberger managed to do landing that bird in the Hudson without a single fatality is exactly what one would expect of a guy like him -flying since he was 17 and a consultant on risk management and safety - yet, we can join the chorus around the world in safely calling him a hero.
Just plain WOW!
7 comments:
“True bravery is shown by performing without witness what one might be capable of doing before all the world”
François de la Rochefoucauld
Wow indeed! Yes, this man is a hero....beyond text book landing and then walking through that plane twice to make sure all were off and safe. What a cool guy he must be. I'm watching stories of how some of the passengers "bonded" and I think they also conducted themselves remarkably well - and let's not forget the NYC rescuers.
I've been in the cockpit of one of the large jets only once, but I was amazed. It was like a small room - and all the controls and gadgets were mind boggling.
So good to hear of a story with such a great ending....
June
The only thing that bugs me about this incident is the overuse of the word "miracle".
If the fuselage smashed into 4 or 5 sections and then everyone survived, then it's a miracle!
I prefer to call this incident "extreme competence" of the part of Captain Sullenberger.
The one term that won't be overused though is the word "hero".
Here's some more stories of hero and even one miracle from other aviation disasters from one of my favourite websites:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/21779
every pilot should learn to fly a glider.
Mr Sully Sullenberger, is indeed a hero. We stand and salute him!
"every pilot should learn to fly a glider."
Apparently, not only is Capt. Sullenberger a glider enthusiast, he's also a former fighter pilot. One cool customer indeed.
At the risk of employing a Jim Rome-ism:
"Captain Sully Sullenberger- Man."
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