Way to go pilot, crew, ferry operators
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- January
- 16
It’s almost like a riddle: When is a plane crash considered a miracle?
Maybe I’m still a kid at heart, but to me it’s a miracle every time an airplane loaded with people and luggage lifts off the ground. But the crash of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River yesterday is being viewed widely in terms of how much worse it could have been. And much of the credit is going to pilot Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III for guiding the damaged Airbus A320 to the water as safely as he could.
Credit also goes to the ferry operators who helped people standing on the wings of the airplane as it sank into frigid water.
If you check the comments to the the story on our Web site, you’ll find mostly positive sentiments. That’s good news on a forum that often draws angry, vitriolic, even hateful comments, even on some benign stories. And to be sure, some arguments are brewing in the remarks. But mainly, they voicers are tripping over themselves to praise Sullenberger and the ferry crews.
One early comment that caught my attention was from someone who said he or she would fly on a plane flown by Sullenberger anytime. I noticed it because I know how easy it can be to fear flying altogether when you see the bizarre sight of a commercial jet half-submerged in gray water, despite the fact that flight remains a safe method of travel. (The last time people died in a commercial plane crash was when 49 perished in Kentucky two and a half years ago.)
This entry was posted
on Friday, January 16th, 2009 at 1:45 pm by Ken Valenti.
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