ONTpax - are you a pilot?
The naivity of your post suggests not.
1) What do you think the Capt was doing when faced with a dual engine failure, low level, flying a 70ton brick, with the city infront and to the right, the river on his left, something that until then was deemed virtually impossible. Do you think he was thinking...."hmm, what can i say to the pax?" or do u think both him and the F/O (who actually had more experience than him on that a/c) were rapidly going through an infinate amount of thoughts trying to solve an - almost - catastrophic problem??
Give him a break.
2) "caused them to overlook something as basic as extending the slats prior to takeoff"
First off do you know the difference between Flaps, Slats, Trailing edge flaps and slats? When would you select the flaps down? Have you never made a "basic" mistake in your life?
Its comments such as yours that show how closed minded some people really are.
As you yourself said "It's very easy to "armchair quarterback" and play the "coulda, woulda shoulda" game"
