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Obviously Sully is amazing but I think it was equally incredible how quickly Air Traffic Control coordinated with another airport and put together an alternate landing plan. Although you hear a bit of angst in the voices, their performance was also impressive.
#1 – Agreed! ATC did a wonderful job attempting to coordinate an alternate emergency landing. Give that man a beer, if not a medal.
What “coordination” was done here? Open mic or land lines with everyone doing their jobs.
Quick==is there a cat on your desk? No. Excellent Coordination.
I don’t know their voices but usually the pilot would be flying and the co-pilot talking.
Competent well trained/experienced people doing their jobs. Well done all around.
I agree with all of the above. These people are true professionals. And you couldn’t hear any strain in Sully’s voice even though he was a second or two from ditching in the river. Amazing.
Not to downplay the awesomeness of all the relevant party’s, but CNN’s video editors suck. I’m thinking that if you have available computer graphics and video of the scene, someone could have synced this rendition of events to show the flightpath from mayday to splashdown. This event deserves a far more visceral experience.
My 2 cents.
“Unable” is standard ATC terminology when a pilot is asked to do something that he can not or will not do for whatever reason. It can be anything from something very ordinary and routine to something most definitely not such as this incident.
Tom
The right stuff
No question. The article’s poster and I are both low timers, ie. <8,000 hrs. COMM IR SE ME L. Aerobatic +2,500 hrs.
So, with some experience, that’s precisely the word I would have used, but in that context, at that time (and ATC could see where it left radar contact) it’s still alarming, and conveys layers of information. Hello, Hudson.
I hope you listened to the longer tape in the link. I thought it had better graphics.
Cool as a cucumber … incredible!
It’s amazing, explain the situation very well!!!
On last week’s No Agenda podcast, Adam Curry, in another of his loonybin conspiracy theories, stated he didn’t believe this event was caused by a bird strike because things just don’t happen like this and because they had never released the audio tapes. No doubt it’s another evil plot by a secret army weapon or alien intervention. I’ve just about had enough of his “crackpot” ramblings to stop listening to the show.
“I’ve just about had enough of his “crackpot” ramblings to stop listening to the show.”
I quit listening to Curry’s podcast 2 years ago for the same reason. That, and I got tired of him droning on and on about how wealthy he is and the boring monologues about his plane.
#3 said “Competent well trained/experienced people doing their jobs.”
Maybe that’s the most amazing thing — probably due to its seeming scarcity now days.
Regarding Curry, I do miss hearing Comic Strip Blogger. His calls were the best part of the show.
This is probably not what happened:
Alan Shepard: Dear Lord, please don’t let me fuck up.
Gordon Cooper: I didn’t quite copy that. Say again, please.
Alan Shepard: I said everything’s A-OK.
Sully is definitely a steely-eyed missile man.
As an air traffic controller myself, the professionalism displayed by everyone on the tape is completely normal. We are trained to remain calm in the face of bad events because one of our goals is to help the pilots to stay calm. You’d expect airline pilots to remain calm, but it becomes critical when you are dealing with a low time pilot who has gotten into a bad situation and could easily panic and kill himself when calm reactions could save him.
Contrary to what a previous poster said, there was fast coordination going on here. The controller had to coordinate with at least one other controller to make sure the aircraft could land at Newark. This would require the other controller to halt or change his operations to accommodate the stricken aircraft. Of course he will say yes because it’s an emergency, but he would immediately have to scramble to get ready. You heard him ask if equipment was needed and the controller said yes. The Newark controller would also be in immediate contact with airport authorities to deploy Crash Fire Rescue equipment at Newark in anticipation of the arrival of the aircraft.
Having been in some similar situations in my career, I can say with confidence that while everything on the tape and on the radios sounded calm, there were multiple people going at a hundred miles an hour to do everything they could to help, like the proverbial duck, nice and still above the water while churning away furiously underneath.
The pilot is so cool minded it is just incredible.
Bravo!
Did anyone else notice that Cactus 1549 was called at various time both before and after the bird strike Cactus 1529 and 1539?
Olbermann is reporting something quite distressful: Sully is a liar and a thief!!!
Olbermann reports that Sully called the California Library system with a request that he get an extension of time to return a borrowed book. The book went down with his aircraft.
Obviously, Sully should advise the Library of same and offer to pay for its loss–not file multiple requests for extensions hoping the paperwork gets lost and the book charge is forgotten about.
I certainly assumed and hoped we could expect more from our heros.
Oh, how our heroes fall.
Wait…during the time when this blog was down for its daily routine maintenance I figured it out. Sully has needs the extension because the book goes on his travel expense report, and he has to wait for his reimbursement check.
See? He’s a hero after all.
I understand how you feel bobbo. If you are ever on a plane that’s in serious trouble and could crash then I sincerely hope you don’t have Sully for a pilot. 😀
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/08/60minutes/main4783580.shtml
Best part of the 60 Min interview with Sully. Dipshit Couric: “Did you pray?” Sully: “No. I followed the checklist and landed my aircraft.”
An excellent presentation of what 99% of all high time pilots are–and must be.