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Retired Airbus driver- me I mean.
No one can detract from the EXCELLENT performance of
the pilots in the Hudson River incident. If observers wish to classify them as
heroic - fine.
I'm reluctant to call them heroes myself. I tend to classify a
hero as someone who deliberately places his/her own life at extreme risk from
relative safety to save someone else having had no obligation to do so.
Subjective judgment maybe.
I've not flown gliders and have no intention to do so. If I'm
going to do a forced landing I want it to be a one off shot, not something I do
for regular fun.
As always, PERSPECTIVE is needed in asessing these
incidents. The pilots were extremely fortunate to find they had the expanse of
smooth water on which to put the aircraft down. If it had been I, I'd still be
kneeling in St. Patricks Cathedral. A dead stick on a 45 metre runway may well
be a much harder exercise to perform if the simulator exercises are any
measure.
I think the pilots did a wonderful job and I'm glad they
(presumably) remembered the DITCHING button given the speed at which events were
unfolding. The passengers are quite entitled to think of them as heroes. I think
they placed training and experience into action of the highest order and the
accolades they receive are deserved.
I just can't quite put it into the same category as the
private soldier who ran across 100 metres of open desert while engaged in a
firefight with the Taliban, picked up a wounded Afghani interpreter, slung him
over his shoulder, ran back across the open desert still under fire, and saved
the guy's life. Such an action won him the Victoria Cross ( = Congressional
Medal of Honour). He also said "I was was just doing my job".
Cheers
Dom Crain
VH-CZJ
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