Stan Geiger

Sully the Hero?

I think "hero" is the most misapplied word in the English language these days. And I think the video media is largely to blame for that.

Not long ago, a commuter plane went down. I was amazed by reports that said the co-pilot on that plane was only 24 years old. That's a side-issue in this discussion, but I mean how in the hell does a 24-year-old rate the second seat in the cockpit of a commercial plane?

That aside, reports in the aftermath of that tragedy noted conversations that went on in the cockpit prior to the crash. There was non-business chitchat going on.

At least one video national news media outlet put its expert on the air. That expert referred to an FAA regulation that bans all non-business conversation in a cockpit below 10,000 feet.

Assuming anything I see on a network news show is for real---I'll take that report as gospel.

So then came the latest reports about the plane that ditched in the Hudson River, and the release of the cockpit tapes preceding that event.

Captain Hero, according to reports, commented on the fabulous view of the Hudson just before the plane's engines ate a flock of geese.

The plane had just departed. It didn't even have the altitude to make it back to the airport from which it had just launched. I'd say the plane was flying at less than 10,000 feet as the pilot engaged in chitchat concerning the beauty of the view. And that means he was acting in violation of FAA regs.

If Captain Hero had been paying a little more attention to business than he was to the landscape below, maybe he could have done something to avoid the birds.

Do ya think?

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