4 thoughts on “Desperately Seeking Heroism”

  1. Rand,
    Just a despicable article. Unbelievble PJM would publish!
    And you are flight rated in what aircraft?
    Oh, you watched “The Right Stuff”?
    Pathetic!

  2. I agree with Nancy Heil in the comments at PJM. Sullenberger was one of the safety advocate pilots and leaders within US Airways. I talked to a friend of mine, who has a similar role for Continental, and he said that the really lucky people were US Airways, since no one could fault the training and professionalism of Sullenberger.

    Thus a worship of the pilot, and we can actually acknowledge the real culprit of the crash, the geese. (well, except for the short lived possibility of earlier engine failure problems, that even Geraldo admitted was a mistake, as geese parts found in both engines). Indeed, Sullenberger’s activity from takeoff to landing is what every pilot should do, and for that he’s a model. The new cockpit tapes just prove that he did the right thing, not the extraordinary thing of heroes.

    And as much as impressed by Sullenberger, heroes not given enough credit in my view are the boat crews that were “jonny on the spot” for the rescue. I heard one report about how the were prepared for such a situation, but nothing about how well that preparation actually worked. Did the boats on the Hudson get any heads up or coordination? Where they just well trained in rescue? Where they average individuals who rose to the occassion and acted beyond training?

    One thing is for sure, the time of year was bad in having geese present but great for having less traffic on the Hudson. One tour boat or ferry in the wrong place, and this storybook ending would have been a horror story.

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