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Sully's landing

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Dan Roman

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 10, 2004
Posts
2,815
This is pretty cool . Sorry if it has been posted elsewhere.
The bottom line is the guy did a great job, I'm impressed with the fact that during the grey area of the flight when he didn't know what he had or didn't have, he didn't panic and try and turn back to LGA (everyone would have died if he had), but he kept the Hudson as his best alternative while he sorted out the problem he was dealt with despite having no warning and very little time to deal with it.
Pretty impressive, and you envious insecure pinheads who need to point fingers or second guess his every move are probably the ones who would have panicked had you been dealt the same cards.

http://www.aircraftowner.com/videos/view/flight-1549-alternate-audio-multi-perspective-_542.html
 
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No doubt about it, Sully did a superb job! And he wasn't alone, both pilots up front kept a cool head and deserve a tremendous amount of credit. Given the experience level between the two, the outcome was probably a little more predictable after both engines quit.
 
I know you dudes love to hero worship, but all I got out of it was a white-haired captain instantly saying "I got it", when "getting it" didn't do anybody any good. In terms of "keeping options open", maybe. I didn't hear him doing checklists, nor did he hit the "ditch switch".

All in all, other than not turning back, I don't see where the hero part shows up.

The controller on the other hand...
 
I know you dudes love to hero worship, but all I got out of it was a white-haired captain instantly saying "I got it", when "getting it" didn't do anybody any good. In terms of "keeping options open", maybe. I didn't hear him doing checklists, nor did he hit the "ditch switch".

All in all, other than not turning back, I don't see where the hero part shows up.

The controller on the other hand...

It takes on average 4 seconds to even realize that you have a problem. then you realize that you have a double engine failure and the worlds busiest city below you. You try and pull out the checklists and hit the ditch switch when that is going on. You are probably one of those "book smart people" who would have tried to make it back to LGA because "thats what the book says" Honestly, no matter what he said, he put an airbus down in a river and no one died!
 
It takes on average 4 seconds to even realize that you have a problem. then you realize that you have a double engine failure and the worlds busiest city below you. You try and pull out the checklists and hit the ditch switch when that is going on. You are probably one of those "book smart people" who would have tried to make it back to LGA because "thats what the book says" Honestly, no matter what he said, he put an airbus down in a river and no one died!

Well said. What St Nic said is very true too. BOTH pilots did a great job.
 
It takes on average 4 seconds to even realize that you have a problem. then you realize that you have a double engine failure and the worlds busiest city below you. You try and pull out the checklists and hit the ditch switch when that is going on. You are probably one of those "book smart people" who would have tried to make it back to LGA because "thats what the book says" Honestly, no matter what he said, he put an airbus down in a river and no one died!

I'm not saying I would have done it better (although ten bucks says I would have called for a checklist...any checklist) but I am saying that what he did didn't come anywhere near the heroism of the hydraulic failure SUX captain (Al Haynes?) who really used all his resources.

Sully said, "I got it", "Standby", "No", and a couple of other phrases that didn't communicate jack to the controller who was trying to help him. He turned left, coasted until he hit without running a single checklist, mostly because he had done the stupid white-haired captain thing and grabbed the controls at the first sign of a problem. Since his FO was pretty sharp, do you think he did good, or bad by grabbing the controls AND TALKING ON THE RADIO at the same time? "Hero" sure. Try that in the sim and see how heroic your debrief is.

I wasn't all that sure about this whole thing until I watched the animation with the subtitles, then I scratched my head and wondered why nobody asked the hard questions. Maybe because there was no way out, so it didn't matter in the end if he used proper CRM and the aircraft manuals to get himself out of a tight spot.

But ask yourself this...what if there was a procedure in a checklist that he could have run that would have restarted an engine (ok, I know they didn't need to restart, they were just at idle), then does his "I got it" and radio talk look any different?

I've noticed that unlike the Al Haynes incident, nobody is going over the CRM of the tapes to applaud old "Shucks, I know I'm a hero, I always planned on this day" Sully.

Instead, the biggest praise you got for him is what you need to pass a private pilot checkride...don't turn 180 when you lose all power. So Sully is a hero for passing his private?

"I got it", gotta love it.

I suspect his co-pilot was busy reading the ECAM directions, not much to do other than "off/on" with the engine switches, but still, what if there was?
 
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Oh yeah, forgot some other heroics:

1. Forgot to declare an emergency
2. Forgot to tell the tower he was ditching (they had to figure it out)
3. Didn't speak to the flight attendants

Hard act to follow.
 
Oh yeah, forgot some other heroics:

1. Forgot to declare an emergency
2. Forgot to tell the tower he was ditching (they had to figure it out)
3. Didn't speak to the flight attendants

Hard act to follow.

1. Does Mayday Mayday Mayday not qualify?
2. "We're gonna be in the Hudson"
3. In hindsight, it didn't matter. Maybe he had the foresight to know that?
4. He called for the checklist for "loss of thrust in both engines".

Your arguments are like Michael Moore's.
 
I'm not saying I would have done it better (although ten bucks says I would have called for a checklist...any checklist) but I am saying that what he did didn't come anywhere near the heroism of the hydraulic failure SUX captain (Al Haynes?) who really used all his resources.

Sully said, "I got it", "Standby", "No", and a couple of other phrases that didn't communicate jack to the controller who was trying to help him. He turned left, coasted until he hit without running a single checklist, mostly because he had done the stupid white-haired captain thing and grabbed the controls at the first sign of a problem. Since his FO was pretty sharp, do you think he did good, or bad by grabbing the controls AND TALKING ON THE RADIO at the same time? "Hero" sure. Try that in the sim and see how heroic your debrief is.

I wasn't all that sure about this whole thing until I watched the animation with the subtitles, then I scratched my head and wondered why nobody asked the hard questions. Maybe because there was no way out, so it didn't matter in the end if he used proper CRM and the aircraft manuals to get himself out of a tight spot.

But ask yourself this...what if there was a procedure in a checklist that he could have run that would have restarted an engine (ok, I know they didn't need to restart, they were just at idle), then does his "I got it" and radio talk look any different?

I've noticed that unlike the Al Haynes incident, nobody is going over the CRM of the tapes to applaud old "Shucks, I know I'm a hero, I always planned on this day" Sully.

Instead, the biggest praise you got for him is what you need to pass a private pilot checkride...don't turn 180 when you lose all power. So Sully is a hero for passing his private?

"I got it", gotta love it.

I suspect his co-pilot was busy reading the ECAM directions, not much to do other than "off/on" with the engine switches, but still, what if there was?


Are you serious? Please review the video/audio again because most of your *points* you are trying to make are 100% INCORRECT.

Airbus loses two engines, low level, over NYC and ALL walk away= HEROS in my book....
 
...lucky in my book.

But I guess we don't chat about the new clothes the emperor has just put on.

"I got it!"
 
...lucky in my book.

But I guess we don't chat about the new clothes the emperor has just put on.

"I got it!"

Ditto on the Michael Moore clone posts by RL. Sullenburger had 3 minutes to make split second decisions. He did MAYDAY; he did call for a checklist. Did you even read the transcript or were you to busy thumping your pecks?

T8
 
Well I guess I hit the nail on the head with the last statement in my original post!
The fact is, pilots have been second guessed after accident/incidents by people since the beginning of aviation. All to often a verdict was rendered of "pilot error" rather than getting to the root of why the accident happened. Sure, some pilots have screwed the pooch, but often what was labeled as pilot error was in fact a pilot doing what anyone else would have done, given the circumstances. This lack of reality often prevented some real lessons from being learned.
In this case, Sully and Skiles did a great job, period. To think you know what he "should" have done is pretty stupid. Nobody reacts under pressure the same as they would sitting at home with all the time in the world to think about what is best to do. This tape proves he acted admirably.
Radarlove's posts say a lot more about him than they do Sully.
 
Ok. All hail the hero.

"I got it". Why, exactly, did he get it? Just a quick question and you can go back to your bowing and scraping.
 
1. Does Mayday Mayday Mayday not qualify?
2. "We're gonna be in the Hudson"
3. In hindsight, it didn't matter. Maybe he had the foresight to know that?
4. He called for the checklist for "loss of thrust in both engines".

Your arguments are like Michael Moore's.

C'mon man!

You shouldn't let facts get in the way of someone's La-La-Land Fantasy story like that......

And please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think this magical "Ditch Switch" ads the extra adhesive needed to hold the belly skin on. That thing had a hole in it bigger than that of the Edmund Fitzgerald.........
 
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I'm not saying I would have done it better (although ten bucks says I would have called for a checklist...any checklist) but I am saying that what he did didn't come anywhere near the heroism of the hydraulic failure SUX captain (Al Haynes?) who really used all his resources.

Sully said, "I got it", "Standby", "No", and a couple of other phrases that didn't communicate jack to the controller who was trying to help him. He turned left, coasted until he hit without running a single checklist, mostly because he had done the stupid white-haired captain thing and grabbed the controls at the first sign of a problem. Since his FO was pretty sharp, do you think he did good, or bad by grabbing the controls AND TALKING ON THE RADIO at the same time? "Hero" sure. Try that in the sim and see how heroic your debrief is.

I wasn't all that sure about this whole thing until I watched the animation with the subtitles, then I scratched my head and wondered why nobody asked the hard questions. Maybe because there was no way out, so it didn't matter in the end if he used proper CRM and the aircraft manuals to get himself out of a tight spot.

But ask yourself this...what if there was a procedure in a checklist that he could have run that would have restarted an engine (ok, I know they didn't need to restart, they were just at idle), then does his "I got it" and radio talk look any different?

I've noticed that unlike the Al Haynes incident, nobody is going over the CRM of the tapes to applaud old "Shucks, I know I'm a hero, I always planned on this day" Sully.

Instead, the biggest praise you got for him is what you need to pass a private pilot checkride...don't turn 180 when you lose all power. So Sully is a hero for passing his private?

"I got it", gotta love it.

I suspect his co-pilot was busy reading the ECAM directions, not much to do other than "off/on" with the engine switches, but still, what if there was?

Sully is ex Air Force? right?
 
I'm not saying I would have done it better (although ten bucks says I would have called for a checklist...any checklist) but I am saying that what he did didn't come anywhere near the heroism of the hydraulic failure SUX captain (Al Haynes?) who really used all his resources.

Sully said, "I got it", "Standby", "No", and a couple of other phrases that didn't communicate jack to the controller who was trying to help him. He turned left, coasted until he hit without running a single checklist, mostly because he had done the stupid white-haired captain thing and grabbed the controls at the first sign of a problem. Since his FO was pretty sharp, do you think he did good, or bad by grabbing the controls AND TALKING ON THE RADIO at the same time? "Hero" sure. Try that in the sim and see how heroic your debrief is.

I wasn't all that sure about this whole thing until I watched the animation with the subtitles, then I scratched my head and wondered why nobody asked the hard questions. Maybe because there was no way out, so it didn't matter in the end if he used proper CRM and the aircraft manuals to get himself out of a tight spot.

But ask yourself this...what if there was a procedure in a checklist that he could have run that would have restarted an engine (ok, I know they didn't need to restart, they were just at idle), then does his "I got it" and radio talk look any different?

I've noticed that unlike the Al Haynes incident, nobody is going over the CRM of the tapes to applaud old "Shucks, I know I'm a hero, I always planned on this day" Sully.

Instead, the biggest praise you got for him is what you need to pass a private pilot checkride...don't turn 180 when you lose all power. So Sully is a hero for passing his private?

"I got it", gotta love it.

I suspect his co-pilot was busy reading the ECAM directions, not much to do other than "off/on" with the engine switches, but still, what if there was?


Kind of an odd response. He in fact did call for a checklist (2 minutes into the tape). While I agree what Al Haynes did was way more dificult, just because what Al Haynes did was outstanding, it doesn't mean Sully wasn't. You are missing the primary difference between the two and it indicates a lack of perception on your part. Al Haynes had a long time to prepare (and to his credit, had to exhibit outstanding airmanship for a long time too), Sully was dealt an entire different set of cards. He was at a few thousand feet with no time to do anything but make sure his crippled airliner landed safely within a couple minutes. Al Haynes did a fantastic job of managing his situation and Sully did too. It's stupid to think you have to put one down, they were both great.
 
And for you guys that seem to have a bruised ego problem with Sully taking control of the airplane from Skiles. Apparently Skiles doesn't. Sully was the Captain and he did what he had to do with just a few seconds to make the decision. He would have looked pretty foolish if he just told Skiles "you fly it".
The Captain is ultimately responsible for everything that happens. Given the circumstances, he was spot on to say "I got it". I'm very impressed with how everyone rose to the occasion and worked together with no warning and just a couple minutes to react to a horrendous situation.
 

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