Again as a non-pilot, I see some interesting 'compare and contrast' opportunities between AF447, BA38 and 'The Miracle on the Hudson'. In the first case, it _appears_, based on expert informed discussion in this thread, that the pilot(s) turned a potential minor high-altitude whoopsie when the aircraft suffered a comparitively minor technical failure at high altitude into a catastrophic crash, and in the latter two cases, pilots were handed catastrophic situations seconds from big smoking cratersville in the middle of major cities and used incredible skill and judgement to make inspired decisions not drawn from any manual, simulator exercise or checklist to save everybody on board
This is
outcome bias. To wit, "
outcome bias is an error made in evaluating the quality of a decision when the outcome of that decision is already known."
Do these cases really bear comparison in the above fashion?
No.