Nice to see our resident pilot Patrick is Johnny-on-the-spot today.

I had a friend who was a veteran air traffic controller (Miami and later Oberlin) who had many tales of near mishaps and unusual incidents, flame outs and such. Of course, he always reiterated that I was safer in the airplane than on the way to the airport.

And how about US Air? One of the worst rated domestic airlines in customer satisfaction and yet come up shining when it really counts. Guess there's a big difference between management and the people who really make the plane fly.

And lastly, let this be something of a lesson for those passengers who ignore those pre-takeoff safety briefings, scoffing at the seeming impossibility of a water landing. I know, the briefings are too long, too wordy and too bogged down with legal-ese and minutiae -- but there is good information in there, from the location and operation of the exits to the proper use of flotation devices.

I think the flying public ignores these briefings because we're already aware of their content. Anyone who's flown before has had the identical presentation before. While annoying for the person who has to give the presentation over and over, it's not really a risk to me as a passenger to sit there and read my book.

Between LaGuardia, where the flight originated, and the Hudson, where it ended up, sits a huge population. How lucky that the pilot was able to maintain altitude long enough to clear Manhattan or whichever borough it crossed.

This will make a great example for the next time somebody tells you that pilots aren't really important because computers actually do everything nowadays.

Obviously, the skill of the crew was critical, even given the amount of luck that was needed (for example, if the water had been just a bit colder, there would have been ice and if it had been much warmer, I'm betting there would have been more boats). All of the circumstances gave the pilot an opening to survive a disaster, and he had the training and experience and quick-wittedness to take it.

"By the Shadow of Death, but he's a lightning pilot!"

"Your true pilot cares nothing about anything on earth but the river, and his pride in his occupation surpasses the pride of kings".

That's Mark Twain about his days as a Mississippi River boat pilot when he observed a seasoned pilot save a boat from disaster with a display of extraordinary skill and daring.

In Twain's day, a riverboat pilot enjoyed a status roughly equivalent to that of an astronaut today. Twain himself was a licensed riverboat pilot.

xxx

I just booked a flight on US Airways; rationally, I know the accident today was freakish, but the article puts my mind at ease nonetheless.

As does the fact that none of my route from Austin to Burlington goes through LaGuardia and its geese.

I was watching news reports this evening, and I said to a friend, "I can't wait to read what Patrick Smith has to say about this. He'll probably praise the crew, warn against sensationalizing the bird angle, and remind us to pay attention to the pre-flight safety instructions." Predictable? Yes. That's a compliment, by the way.

When I hear or read "crash" I think of bodies and aircraft parts scattered all over the place.

This is a water landing, eh? Ditch?

God bless the pilot and crew. Brilliant flying indeed. Seeing that plane in the middle of the Hudson river, passengers huddled on the wing, ferries racing over to collect them - incredible. I truly can not believe there were no fatalities. Miraculous. Congratulations on a job very well done.

I know Patrick hates media speculation, much less conclusions, but...from the "News Hour With Jim Leher", a usually reliable source:

Dean Meminger:

"And, at that point, they landed on the Hudson River. But, from very early on, people on the ground, in the Bronx at least, they knew something was wrong, because we did hear a loud boom. And, then, when we looked up in the sky, we saw the flames coming from the engine.

I did speak to a scuba diver from the New York City Fire Department who went into the water. He said, you know what? This pilot and crew, they did an amazing job with bringing this plane down on the water the way they did.

JIM LEHRER: And that was clearly -- or at least based on everything we have been told up to this point -- that that was when the birds hit -- hit those two engines, correct?

DEAN MEMINGER: Sure.

Well, I'm just the guy in row 34, but I'd bet the "boom" heard was more likely compresser stalls. Patrick can probably elucidate.

Kevin

Patrick, you're always talking about the regional jet pilot in his/her twenties, making crap money. Today, the USAir passengers got an older guy, ex-AF who practically wrote the book on safety and emergency situations.

I understand that most commercial pilots don't ever have to face situations such as this (much as most policeman don't fire their weapons in the line of duty) but I'm curious. What is the approximate percentage of pilots who have had to deal with, say, wheels-up landings, no power landings, and the like? Would it even be 5% over a 30-year career?

Thank you, as usual, Patrick, for your sensible insights. Also, kudos to the pilots for their "brilliant flying" - there are no other words.

Spectacularly convenient, wasn't it? A plane going down in the Hudson on the coldest day in the entire northeastern quadrant of the U.S. in over a decade. Sheeesh!

Looks like they definitely earned their money today. Chesley Sullenberger was the pilot and looking at his credentials it seems like he knows how to kick the dog so he can actually fly the plane. Amazing job. And then he made sure to check that all the passengers had exited before exiting himself. Ditching the plane safely - that's self preservation. Making sure all your passengers are safe before getting out of a potentially sinking aircraft - that's courage.

(the joke is that in modern aircraft there's the autopilot, the pilot and a dog. The dog's job is to bite the pilot if he tries to touch any of the controls)