Top man, top job!
There is little to add to the many postings on this topic other than to offer congratulations to the crew, ALL the crew of 1549 for a job well done. Despite all the rubbish offered by the armchair experts, it is clear that Capt. Sullenberger got it pretty much down pat as he responded to the developing and potentially catastrophic emergency on his aircraft just after take-off.
Emergencies don't run off exactly by the numbers as they do in training and whether or not he got off a Mayday call, or any debate as to the value of such a call, or questions about the precise value of the response of Cabin Crew are all little more than idle chatter. On the day, the crew got it just about as right as it could have been, they were favoured by training, calm response, advantage of circumstances and a dressing of luck sprinkled across the top. It takes all of those to get the right result in any circumstances and none of those can be used to take the tiniest thing away from the full credit due to the crew - ALL the crew.
Many of us who fly professionally will consider what happened both in the context of relief that it all turned out well but, more importantly, with regard to just how we might have handled that or any other real life emergency in the air. Sullenberger is quoted by his family as saying that most pilots go through their entire career without an incident. In my own case, so far, he's been right and I dearly hope it stays that way. I'm 52 years old and I don't feel either desire or compulsion to test my "cool-clean-hero" ability nor to check my emergency drills in anything other than the simulator. I hope my training has laid up a bank of knowledge and automatic reactions which will stand me in good stead in the event I am faced with a real emergency one day and that's about it.
The finer points of this incident are of no importance at all at this stage.
It is clear there was complete power loss in both engines, it is clear Sullenberger did what he was supposed to do, it is clear the cabin crew did what they too were supposed to do, it is clear there were extremely fortunate circumstances prevailing at the time in terms of available first responders and, most importantly, it is clear everybody survived.
After that, ladies and gentlemen, all this "what if" stuff and "did he do this or that?" stuff is just so much waffle and about as useful as an ashtray on a motorcycle.
Well done again to the crew, ALL the crew of 1549.
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