06 February 2009

FAA Tapes Reveals Sully Kept Cool Under Pressure



Phenomenal that he managed to keep from panicking after a bird strike over a populated area. MSNBC has a full transcript of Flight 1549 and Air Traffic Control at La Guardia before the plane was landed in the Hudson River. I figured it was going to be more like Bill Paxton flipping out in Aliens (Game Over man!). A testament to his professionalism.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Next time my piece of shit GPS gets me lost, I will channel Capt. Sully, instead of Sam Kinison.

subrookie said...

Interesting US Air is using "cactus" as their call sign. Cactus was America West's until they merged with US Air last year.

Pretty calm dude.

subrookie said...

I know the air traffic controller is trying to help but damn he talks a lot. As busy as he thinks he is imagine being the pilot, not only trying to fly the airplane but communicating with ATC.

When I worked for an airline we went through these disaster response drills. I spent a few days with the Red Cross practicing drills like that at the Ramada at JFK. That hotel housed every press conference related to a plane crash out of JFK (TWA 800, Swiss Air 111, Egypt Air 990).

I used to work with the woman who closed the door on TWA 800 JFK-CDG before it blew up east of Long Island. She had to deal with the guilt of complaining about how much of a pain in the ass the high school students from PA on a trip to Paris were who ultimately died. This could have been much worse.

My .02 Sully did a great job, but it was the actions of the entire crew that ensured that everyone made it out alive.