Congratulations Sully

Unless you've been living under a rock this past week, you've heard of Captain Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger's successfully ditching of US Airways flight 1549 in New York City's Hudson river.

The Airbus A320 hit a flock of birds that took out both engines. An extremely rare event. Sully acted quickly by ditching the plane into the Hudson. The "landing" was flawless. The fuselage stayed in tact while the engines dislodged and dropped to the river floor. Passengers got out onto the wings via emergency exits and ferries and other emergency personnel were at the scene in minutes. There were no fatalities.

Apparently the A320 has a "Ditching" button that completely seals all holes in the underbelly of the aircraft to help it stay afloat on water. More details here. Once again, apparently, you can do this on a Boeing as well, but it's not one button, but a procedure to hit several.

Sully is a hero. He has decades of flying experience and is a participant in airline safety training and accident investigations. Go look at his CV. A true and faithful 'captain of the ship', Sully twice walked the aisles to make sure everyone was off the plane before disembarking himself. I only have one thing to say: As much as I want Sully to captain my next flight, can someone at US Airways or the FAA, get this man off of flying routine flights and onto an executive board managing flight safety?

-Krip

P.S. Here's a 10 minute clip capturing the event complete with the plane hitting the water and a ferry coming to assist. It's posted by the US Coast Guard Vessel Travel Service.