chaplin

Friday, January 16, 2009

"We're presently cruising at five feet..."

Nobody should doubt the professionalism, bravery and sang froid of Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III. I fancy that the first public words he will say are "I was doing my job", which is no more or less than the truth. He will probably also point out how lucky he was.

At the same time I think the word "hero" is best reserved for those who risk their lives when they don't have to. Your best guarantee of safety in the air is that if there's one person on board who wants to preserve his life even more than you want to preserve yours, it's the person driving.

5 comments:

  1. With a name like that he should have said "the kite got a bit of a prang so I had to drop it in the briney"

    Apprently everybody on the plane is a hero now and has been given the keys to NYC.

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  2. Nassim Nicholas Taleb (The Black Swan) would probably have something interesting to say about this - people are being hailed for what didn't happen.

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  3. That's a lot of new keys being cut in New York City. Security no longer the top priority then.

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  4. The title is brilliant. Not much else can be said there...

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  5. I agree. Not to be churlish but it didn't fit my definition of a miracle either. Everything worked just the way it should.

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