Jan 16, 2009

Splash Landing in The Hudson

Being a native New Yorker, I may have followed Thursday's U.S. Airways incident more closely than others. I was driving back to Montgomery from North Alabama during the day and found the radio reports frustrating because none of them painted a good-enough picture of the plane in the water. Did it break up? Was it intact? I didn't get an answer till I got to a TV. And then there were the journalists having trouble describing what happened. One local TV report today said the jet "plunged into the Hudson". Uh, no, not quite. What it DID do is land on the Hudson River...it "ditched", if you will, in the river. Quite a story and TV loved it because it combined the elements they live for: drama, and heroes. Certainly the captain deserves praise for the difficult glide onto the water, but he and the rest of the crew did just what they were supposed to do, what they were trained to do. It will however make a lot of travelers pay more attention the next time the flight attendant tells passengers "the seat cushions can act as flotation devices...." Yes SIR!

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