Simberg has a point. My brother was a pilot for over 30 years first with the Marines and then a major airline and he said essentially the same thing, that he thinks he or any good pilot could have done this. If this sounds arrogant or dismissive, think about it. Chances are the next time you fly Sully will *not* be the pilot. Do you want your pilot saying to himself, “Gosh, Sully was so heroic, I could never have done that” or instead have the confidence that he would do as well if confronted with a similarly dire situation?
However, my brother also said that while he *thinks* he could have done that, Sully actually *did* it. This was far from a routine situation, which is why it got so much media attention. I remember an incident from years ago when a pilot lost an engine – no, it didn’t just stop working but actually *fell off* theplane – and he brought in successfully, I think with no casualties. That did not get as much press, but that was a long time ago. And the fact that this occurred in New York City obviously increased the focus. There were millions, or at least many thousands, of people thinking that they could have been in the flight path and that Sully took the risk of ditching in the water to save them.
