IMHO: Sully's real skill was in making the decision to ditch in the Hudson and not make a 50/50 attempt at the beckoning runway ahead. That was the real skill; the ditching was a notch down on that. Skilful? Yes; something i hope all of us would expect to be able to execute. Would all of us have made the ditching decision/choice? I wonder.
The Air Transat scenario was a classic Swiss cheese affair. Many factors contributed to the crew being in a hole; some stupidity from engineers and from themselves. Pure luck put a runway within reach. They then executed a 'get out of the hole' manoeuvre excellently. Does that deserve medals and commendations? Not for me to comment, but they all survived. Without Lajes we'd be discussing the merits of Sully A320 on a calm river v A330 on a lumpy sea in the middle of nowhere. I suspect the latter would not have been fatality-less, and a deep sea rescue op would have involved more than a couple of ferries.
Last edited by RAT 5; 2nd Jul 2016 at 07:08.