Originally Posted by
Steepclimb
He did a great job saved everyone. What's to bet he's also a stick and rudder pilot of some sort?
He's appropriately modest.
Like Sully he was lucky on one level. Like Sully he took it and they all walked away.
He says he's no hero, any pilot would do the same. He's right. But not all pilots could dead stick an electric jet into a cornfield.
By “stick and rudder pilot” I assume you mean not an Ab-initio trainee, someone who needed substantial light aircraft experience or military training in order to pull this off? If that’s the case it’s incorrect. From the info given in the articles below the Captain had a total of about 3000hrs and 6 years flying and for the FO about 600hrs and only 1 year of professional flying, and for both of them all seemingly with Ural Airlines in the A320 post initial training. Which means these guys are almost certaintly Ab-initio cadets, who some on this forum and other parts of the internet and the media too often deride as “button pushing children of the magenta”. I think they’ve disproved that now.
Meet the hero pilots who saved 233 lives in ‘miracle’ belly landing of jet in field
Hero pilot says landing in Russian cornfield ‘was only hope’