Well, it looks like we'll finally have a book about Captain Sully soon: In January 2009, the world witnessed one of the most remarkable emergency landings in history when Captain Sullenberger brought a crippled US Airways flight onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all of the passengers and crew aboard. The successful outcome…
Continue reading: Captain Sullenberger’s “Highest Duty”
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I have a buddy who's a pilot, and late one night when we were talking about crashes and whatnot, I asked about his take on the Hudson 'splashdown.' I started off by saying that Patrick Smith of Salon's weekly 'Ask the Pilot' column opined that a pilot would never claim it was an heroic act, that it was all part of training.
However, my pilot buddy (flew 737s, not 321s), said that he made a critical error by not spooling the one good engine to max thrust immediately after the strike...my friend claimed this may have been enough to get him to Teterboro (sp?). It was interesting insight. That said, my friend said it was a tough situation all around, and everyone makes mistakes.
He did mention that in his circles, the Iowa cornfield UA crash was the most amazing, heroic act in crashdom.
Nice video. There will always be some would-a could-a, but in a real situation he did pull it off.
A FYI - Was at Mall of America yesterday and saw a sign for Capt Sully book signing on Oct 17 at Barnes & Noble.
The new Sullenberger title Highest Duty is available right now from BooksOnBoard as an ebook with 100% money back as rewards dollars you can then spend on additional books. Basically, it looks like they are giving this title away for free, or at least for $0 net cost. It came out today and I downloaded it. Can't get an ebook signed, but no trees are killed.