Wow,a bad crash in Buffalo last night where wind may have played a factor.It brought me to thinking of the near crash a few weeks ago where pilot Sullenberger saved all passengers aboard by keeping his cool and using his experience and talent saving all aboard.Am I the only one who thinks that the vast majority of pilots would have accomplished the same so called miracle?
Pilots are sort of like 3rd basemen or shortstops and co pilots are like 2nd basemen and 1st basemen where the guy on the hot corner the vast majority of the time snags a line drive grounder and turns the double play.They just do it time and time again like something that seems impossible becomes hum drum routine and predictable.
Not to diminish Sullenberger's accomplishment but what he did saving the passengers isn't much different than what an accomplished video game genius does winning at video games with unbelievable maneuvers on a control grip.The only difference was that the stakes were higher.
So has anyone ever been in a plane they were convinced was going to crash because of severe weather or mechanical conditions?Almost 2 years to the day I had a case where I drove my dad in a snowstorm to take off from Duluth,Mn to Laughlin,Nevada in a snowstorm.That was bad enough where I thought that flight would be canceled and it wasn't but the return flight 5 days later was 5 times worse.It was the snow and wind storm of the century and all commercial flights were grounded in Minnesota.I thought for sure the Lasughlin to Duluth flight would be cancelled but it wasn't.I have a hunch Don Laughlin the owner of the casino didn't want 225 people to get a free extra night there and where it would have disrupted the schedule of people coming in to get rooms that were fresh eager gamblers and not played out like the others heading home.Anyway,winds in Duluth were gusting up to 80 miles an hour in blinding snow and the plane landed safely.In my opinion it was about a 3 or 4 times harder accomplishment than the Hudson River landing.Not to take anything away from Sullenberger mind you,it's just that there are probably 1000'sof flights a year that were more difficult.
Pilots are sort of like 3rd basemen or shortstops and co pilots are like 2nd basemen and 1st basemen where the guy on the hot corner the vast majority of the time snags a line drive grounder and turns the double play.They just do it time and time again like something that seems impossible becomes hum drum routine and predictable.
Not to diminish Sullenberger's accomplishment but what he did saving the passengers isn't much different than what an accomplished video game genius does winning at video games with unbelievable maneuvers on a control grip.The only difference was that the stakes were higher.
So has anyone ever been in a plane they were convinced was going to crash because of severe weather or mechanical conditions?Almost 2 years to the day I had a case where I drove my dad in a snowstorm to take off from Duluth,Mn to Laughlin,Nevada in a snowstorm.That was bad enough where I thought that flight would be canceled and it wasn't but the return flight 5 days later was 5 times worse.It was the snow and wind storm of the century and all commercial flights were grounded in Minnesota.I thought for sure the Lasughlin to Duluth flight would be cancelled but it wasn't.I have a hunch Don Laughlin the owner of the casino didn't want 225 people to get a free extra night there and where it would have disrupted the schedule of people coming in to get rooms that were fresh eager gamblers and not played out like the others heading home.Anyway,winds in Duluth were gusting up to 80 miles an hour in blinding snow and the plane landed safely.In my opinion it was about a 3 or 4 times harder accomplishment than the Hudson River landing.Not to take anything away from Sullenberger mind you,it's just that there are probably 1000'sof flights a year that were more difficult.
