USAir Crew on 60 Minutes

[nimtz]

For those that think Sully is hogging all the glory please follow link below to this morning's presentation of the key to the city. He makes it clear right away that his crew is being forgotten in the media circus. The fact the focus is on him is through no doing of the man himself. I am proud that he is handling this forced upon fame with such class.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02092009/news/nationalnews/hero_pilot__crew_get_keys_to_nyc_154274.htm

 

[LRvsH25B]

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

That's not the case at all. Liek he said, they were busy, but the F/A need info as well. It was probably an oversite, and that's understandable, but there is a considerable difference in preperation/briefings as to what the F/As need to do when landing on water as opposed to land (opening doors, plane sinking, lifevests, etc).

With your flight time and list of aircraft flown, are you really in a position to tell anyone on here they are Monday Morning QB'ing? No offense, but that is a legitimate question.

 

[Benjamin Dover]

For those that think Sully is hogging all the glory please follow link below to this morning's presentation of the key to the city. He makes it clear right away that his crew is being forgotten in the media circus. The fact the focus is on him is through no doing of the man himself. I am proud that he is handling this forced upon fame with such class.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02092009/news/nationalnews/hero_pilot__crew_get_keys_to_nyc_154274.htm

I guess I have mixed thoughts on Sully now. 60 minutes was obviously edited to keep up the hero story, but I watched him live on the CBS Early Show this morning, and while he did mention "crew", I still heard much more "I" than "we". At least he gave his FO credit for reading the evacuation checklist

Something else I was hoping to hear from him was something to the effect of all airline pilots are trained in a variety of emergencies where we have to choose between alternatives and it seemed to him like ditching was the only viable alternative. Noone really knows, but my guess is that the same conclusion would have come to his FO and most of us as well. And I think most of us could have ditched wings level, in control just as he did, given the conditions that day.

That being said, Sully did do a great job before and after the ditching. But I also think Sully has missed an opportunity to put a plug in for our profession as a whole and maybe silence some out there, and some of our fellow employees, who think we are overpaid button pushers. Instead, the "thank God it was Sully at the controls, otherwise it would have been Disaster on the Hudson" theme continues. "I knew I could do it" is well and good, but is he the only one that could? The public still thinks so.

 

[kf4amu]

With your flight time and list of aircraft flown, are you really in a position to tell anyone on here they are Monday Morning QB'ing? No offense, but that is a legitimate question.

Asbolutely. It's no secret that the facts are not out. We know very little about what went on in the cockpit. Second guessing them at this point is unprofessional...that goes for any profession that has a situation like this.

 

[Simon Says]

Sully and Skiles are nothing but stoic and proffesional. What an amazing story.

 

[nimtz]

Plus I think Sully hinted at why he's reluctantly playing 'the hero' that the media wants. When he talked about people looking for something to feel good about, I knew exactly where he was coming from. It's not the best comparison, but think of the 1980 Men's Hockey Team. If they would of won that gold in '88 it would have been considered a great accomplishment, but not a defining moment of national pride. It's all perception and timing...

 

[airplane wizard]

Isn't it on the safety card not to open the back doors after a water landing? But who reads those anyway.

 

[airplane wizard]

I guess I have mixed thoughts on Sully now. 60 minutes was obviously edited to keep up the hero story, but I watched him live on the CBS Early Show this morning, and while he did mention "crew", I still heard much more "I" than "we". At least he gave his FO credit for reading the evacuation checklist

Something else I was hoping to hear from him was something to the effect of all airline pilots are trained in a variety of emergencies where we have to choose between alternatives and it seemed to him like ditching was the only viable alternative. Noone really knows, but my guess is that the same conclusion would have come to his FO and most of us as well. And I think most of us could have ditched wings level, in control just as he did, given the conditions that day.

That being said, Sully did do a great job before and after the ditching. But I also think Sully has missed an opportunity to put a plug in for our profession as a whole and maybe silence some out there, and some of our fellow employees, who think we are overpaid button pushers. Instead, the "thank God it was Sully at the controls, otherwise it would have been Disaster on the Hudson" theme continues. "I knew I could do it" is well and good, but is he the only one that could? The public still thinks so.

I would think any airline pilot would have been able to do the same thing.

 

[relief tube]

That psycho pax that opened the back door should be prosecuted. We all know if it was even colder, or if it wasn't in the middle of where 8 million people live, things would have been a lot worse. Everything would have been a lot drier if they just went out the wings.

 

[SoCentralRain]

I would think any airline pilot would have been able to do the same thing.

Exactly. I'm a little disappointed that Sully did not state just that. He was right place right time, yes.

But many, if not all of us would have come to a similar conclusion. I wish he would have stated the band of brothers with whom he shares the skies are just as capable as he was that afternoon. That would have made a heartwarming story of luck and heroism into a rational distillation of training and profesionalism. We needed this.

SCR