Are you a hero?
 

When KC asked Sully if he considered himself a hero, he said something like, "If people want to think that, I'm not going to dissuade them" or something to that effect.

I'd much rather have heard him say,

"No, I and MY CREW are not heroes, we did our job and it turned out we made the correct decisions, executed the plan based on our training and collective experience and just got a little plain lucky. But rather than being thought of as a hero, I'd like this incident to make people realize that situations like this are why we pay for experienced airline captains, first officers and flight attendents; to make potentially life-saving decisions."

Or something like that...

In the end, it's Capt Sullenberger's jet, crew, interview and moment of fame. He can say what he wants. It's just not what I would have said. Maybe he said something like that and it was edited. I'll watch Larry king and see if reactions like mine change what he says next time.

The American people consider him a hero anyway, he doesn't have to say it. Regardless of what I think, great job, Captain.

Hag

Reportedly the generators stayed on the line, the APU came up quickly and the airplane remained in NORMAL LAW for the entire flight. No stall...

No, young birds are limited to 1sm vis but older birds who have done at least 3 migrations can fly down to 1/4sm.

Actually he went much farther than that and I am glad he didn't do the Chuck Yeager, "aw shucks." What he and his crew did WAS extraordinary. But it seems that we have an anti-hero attitude where false humility and self-deprecation is required.

From what I have seen, Sully answered the questions directly and without rambling. Couric posed specific questions and Sully directly answered them.

I might add that from reading the posts, one can conclude many have not been at an interview or have not been interviewed. A 5 minute segment may be the edits from a 1hr interview. And the final result is designed to capture the audience and to enhance the media presenting the interview. (translate...$$$ for the media).

I am a bit amused at the attitude on this thread. Seems everyone likes Sully but his fellow pilots.

So he really hit a flock of 152's? lol :D

While no one doubts that Sully made an impeccable landing, thus saving everyone onboard from a major catastrophe, it is the event after the landing that is not being recognize. Sully has “Chuck Yeager” syndrome therefore the other crew is irrelevant. For all Captains, do you think you could accomplish the same outcome without you fellow crewmembers? Sully saved himself, which in turn, saved the other flight crew! It was professional training that saved everyone onboard! I had my emergencies before and still do not take the credit. We all have duties to ensure the safety of everyone onboard. Remember, CRM is a collection of ideas to reach the best safe possible conclusion.

They were obviously inexperienced birds.. fat ones at that. Maybe it was their first Migration IOE.

Spoke with a friend of mine who is close to the investigation and he opined that some of the birds were in excess of 10lbs. Also, the airplane took LOTS of hits.. apparently the birds were practicing close formation. I can't remember where I saw the photo but there was a large dent just below the F/Os window indicating a rather large strike. Also, strikes along both wings.

from being around him a couple of times before this accident, I would disagree.

Sniper? :confused:

This is a good one:

There is no limit to what a man can do or how far he can go if he doesn't mind who gets the credit. - Robert Woodruff

On the day of the accident, I watched an interview from a passenger on the plane and he said everyone was calm, quiet, worked together, no screaming, and waiting their turn in line to get out.

The next day, I watched another interview of a man and woman who were also passengers on the plane. They said, people were yelling and screaming, some jumped seats and were panicking.

Perhaps what happened up front was different in the back? Who knows.

Ironically, very, very few of the passengers grabbed their seat cushion or the life vest from under their seat. So, perhaps it wasn't so calm, cool, and collected as we've been told.

To get back on thread topic ... Sullly did a great job, but he could have knocked it out of the park by only appearing with his full crew when asked for an appearance.

-Fatty