Originally Posted by
UltraFan
Fruitless argument. How many understood his command? And how many followed? Compared to the Russian crew, Sully had all the time and altitude in the world. He was at 900 meters, while the Russians were barely airborne. Plus a much heavier plane. And a tiny insignificant detail - the people onboard didn't speak English.
I didn't accuse the Russian pilots of anything. They probably had more important stuff to focus on at the time, and based on the outcome they did an excellent job prioritizing what should be done within the short time available.
However I take issue with the claims that a "brace" command is useless. First of all, the command is not just for the passengers, but also for the cabin crew. And the cabin crew will start repeating the command to the passengers, and instructions about how to do it if the passengers were not previously briefed due to lack of time. They will keep repeating that until the plane comes to a stop. Sully gave the command 90 seconds before impact, and the cabin crew kept repeating the command and the instructions until impact, according to USA Today:
'Miracle on the Hudson' reveals passengers' stories - USATODAY.com
Also, nothing stops the airline from personalizing those commands with a version in the local language, like the Scandinavians, that keep alternating between English and their language when the cabin crew repeats the commands.