As a non professional pilot I find some of the recent posts by 'professional' pilots astounding for the following reasons;
1. The captain found himself in a situation, made a decision and STUCK to that decision.
2. Yes there may have been another option and yes it MAY have worked, but why introduce problems, turns, ATC, landing gear and drag, flying a crippled airliner over high terrain and densley populated areas, with pitch (flap and speedbrake) the only method of controlling airspeed, get it wrong and your short or long. The crew followed basic airmanship aviate, navigate, communicate.
3. The Hudson river is a long clear relatively unobstructed area (yes water) but with skill as was the case you have lots of time to judge the rate of descent, airspeed etc. to have a reasonable chance of pulling it off, without worrying about additional ground casualties.
4. It may not have been a factor in the cockpit thought process, but they turned the fuel to their advantage, instead of worrying about crashing on terra firma, the fuel assisted in keeping the aircraft afloat.
5. Lastly, some posters pointing to the fact that they were not heroes, and that they were merely doing their job. How much time is spent on SEPs in the sim practicing complete power failure with little height or airspeed?
My points may not be valid, but hopefully worthy of discussion!
Last edited by runawayedge; 10th Feb 2009 at 16:34.