This hero business is really p*****g me off. The crew did what they were trained to do very professionally and very well. The Captain made the best decision of the choices available to him in a cool and controlled fashion and it worked, FORTUNATELY. Well done.
Don't know if I would have reacted the same, one would like to thinks so but NO-ONE knows.
BUT no-one was a hero.
A hero is as an example, the guy who dived into the icy, and now oily and fuel polluted Potomac river when that 737 crashed to save the woman who was drowning. He risked his life un-prompted and unpaid to save another. That is a hero. To say this crew were heroic is an insult to people like that.
This is not meant as an insult to him.... no doubt all you who need someone to look up to in order to sleep at night will think it is....
Looking at previous threads and posts, I wonder what all you armchair analysts would be saying about him if the aircraft had broken up, just sunk and everyone had drowned?
Regarding Mayday, if you use it and say nothing else for a few seconds ATC will be on alert immediately, the big red button will be pressed, SAR will have the Rotors running and Fire/rescue will be in the trucks ready to roll, also everyone else will or should shut up.
That 10 seconds could save your life.
That is the purpose. TO GET THE ATTENTION OF ATC. Complaining about using it is just an attempt to justify the lazy attitude people who think the rules or recommended procedures are for everyone else and not for real pilots like them.
Sully made a Mayday call, according to the CVR, so all you hero worshippers have now got something to emulate
