The scene of passengers standing on the wings of the airplane, floating in the cold waters of the Hudson River, waiting for rescue, became the image of a miracle and turned the crew, and especially Capt. Chesley Sullenberger III, into heroes. The water landing, the survival of all parties and Sullenberger’s modesty all conspired to make the man known as "Sully" a household name.
Sullenberger said the incident was life-changing. Since the crash, he has fought for better flight safety.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
He landed a plane on a flat surface, just like he did a million times before, just like what happens a million times a day, everyday..Pilots laugh at this "hero" thing. Its like you parrellel parking a car in a puddle..Its the same as doing it on dry pavement, and its not hard.
HEARTLESS wrote: Yeah, he ought to know. He probably handled baggage.
Everyone here knows im a commercial licensed, multi engine/instrument rated pilot with over 4500 hours logged. Landing on a river is as hard as landing on a runway...So if you want to make hero's, make the lovely flight attendants hero's for getting everybody out of the plane.
Super Malta wrote: Landing on a river is as hard as landing on a runway...
So lets get rid of all the airports and runways and just use rivers, we could save a lot on wasted infrastructure spending. Brilliant idea SM
And the pilots could shut down the engines and coast in... saving fuel and CO2 emissions! Bravo
:rofllol
What i'm saying is that it was real easy what he did..Sure there was some fear of the sudden deceleration, the fear of one side of the aircraft (wing tip, engine) coming down first causing the plane to turn and possibly (not likely) come apart, but a pilot has those same fears everytime he lands a plane. Everytime a pilot lands a plane, he gets it going as slow as he possibly can until it stalls a few above the runway. Thats what he did on the Hudsen-He's done it a million times, and he can do it in his sleep. Is that a hero? He's a hero for speaking out for ALPA and his co workers when he had the countries attention.
I always laugh when someone says "oh, he's a good pilot or a great pilot"- All the pilots are basically the same. Its an easy job...And most of those guages you see are just there to warn you way ahead of time of a possible powerplant issue..Its like if your car had oil temperature gauges, water temperature guages, brake temperature gauges, break pad gauges, air intake guages, fuel pressure gauges etc etc ..Its not hard to glance at those gauges to make sure everythings in the green, and if its not they have a procedure to follow, and if the pilots don't remember it, its in a book thats right between them- Its not complicated. My dad (who was a 777 captian) always said "im just a glorified bus driver"....
When training for my commercial license at some point during EVERY SINGLE TRAINING FLIGHT (maybe 40) the instructor would just pull the power- I had to whip out my e6b, its like a slide rule thing, and determine imeadiatly how far I was gonna glide factoring in winds and density altitude, and locate and makeable airport or open field to land in, and make a turn in that direction- I had to do it all in like 30 seconds or the instructor would say something like "YOU JUST KILLED EVERYONE!"...
"NTSB Board: Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger Could Have Landed At Airport Instead Of Hudson River"
I know you need hero's, but the guy is not a hero-Sorry
