The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (GAPAN), a City of London Livery Company, whose Patron is HRH The Duke of Edinburgh and Grand Master HRH The Duke of York, has awarded a prestigious award, the Master’s Medal, to the crew (air and cabin) of US Airways Flight 1549.
Along with Mayor Michael Bloomberg the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators seem to be taking quite a big risk that something completely unexpected about the accident may not yet turn up during the investigation.
Whilst one appreciates that this is now a 24 hour news society and that everyone wants to be seen to jump on the band wagon it seems a little depressing when a crusty old body like this, with an even more crusty old Royal Patron, can't wait until the official report comes out before taking its decision.
There still seems to be a slight risk that after careful further analysis it may be concluded (with the benefit of hindsight and after far longer to think about the matter than these pilots actually had at the time) that Captain Sullenberger almost certainly could have reached La Guardia or Teterborough safely and that while he got away with it he took a massive and unnecessary gamble with everyone's lives by ditching in the Hudson. To be perfectly honest I think this is now rather unlikely because this event has now acquired such a folklore like media status that it will not be politically convenient (and we know from past incidents that the NTSB and even more so the FAA is sometimes susceptible to political pressure) to reach such a conclusion, even were it to turn out to be true.
Nonetheless surely both Air Transat and the Air Canada Gimli Glider incidents show that modern Boeing and Airbus jets can be brought down safely without any engines working but with other control surfaces fully operational. That being so someone may eventually start to ask why landing on a runway wasn't possible here. Obviously the main cited reason will come down to lack of altitude (as both the other two flights had engineless descents from cruising altitude) and the fact that those two airports were in largely unpopulated areas whereas La Guardia and Teterborough airports were in densely populated areas, especially when approached from Manattan.
But there still seems at least some remaining risk that whilst Captain Sullenberger clearly did a brilliant job of ditching in the Hudson safely (once he had taken his decsion to do so) that the NTSB may eventually determine that he need not have ditched in the Hudson at all. Certainly in days gone by worthy bodies like this Guild would always have waited to be sure of the outcome of the official investigation before they bestowed such honours.