The hero pilot

[Deckerd]

Does the manner of the passenger's deaths define the quality of the pilot's flying ability?

 

[Locutus of Bored]

You know, that plane tumbling tail-over-nose upon landing on the runway in Sioux City, Iowa back in the day (1988-ish I think) led to a really nicely done TV movie with none other than the great Charlton Heston playing the pilot.

I hope someone of equal or even greater talent takes the role of this gent.

yeah that was another damn fine bit of flying (well going by the telemovie anyway

I can't remember what happened but he got so close to getting the plane down in one piece - might of been a wing dipped right at the end.

Umm. 111 people died in that crash, the plane tumbled and burned. Not sure I'd call that a "damn fine bit of flying."

Given that you know the exact number of fatalities, I'm guessing you looked it up on Wikipedia, in which case a quick perusal of the rest of the article would tell you that the plane had no hydraulic control whatsoever so all they had to fly with was adjusting the thrust of the engines, that it was considered a brilliant bit of flying by almost everyone involved and by the post-accident investigators, that the tumbling occurred after the plane hit the ground and the crew no longer had control, and that the lessons learned from this contributed to including computerized methods of incorporating variable thrust-only landings in other aircraft (which saved an F-15 a few years later IIRC).

Sometimes the whole playing devil's advocate thing goes a bit far, Trekker. Praise for the skill of the crew is unanimous in this case as far as I can recall.

 

[Thrall]

I wouldn't call him a hero. Just a guy who's really good at his job.

 

[Kryton]

You know, that plane tumbling tail-over-nose upon landing on the runway in Sioux City, Iowa back in the day (1988-ish I think) led to a really nicely done TV movie with none other than the great Charlton Heston playing the pilot.

I hope someone of equal or even greater talent takes the role of this gent.

yeah that was another damn fine bit of flying (well going by the telemovie anyway

I can't remember what happened but he got so close to getting the plane down in one piece - might of been a wing dipped right at the end.

Umm. 111 people died in that crash, the plane tumbled and burned. Not sure I'd call that a "damn fine bit of flying."

Ah...so the hundred or more survivors just lived by default. Gotcha.

 

[the 4th hanson bro]

He did OK in an extreme bit of circumstances, but I don't think he can be called a "hero" when 111 -including small children- died horribly.

Not saying he's a horrible pilot I guess he did the best he could with what he had but nor can I say he did a "fine bit of flying."

He could have just said "fuck it" and pointed the nose towards the ground.

But instead, he did everything he could to get his aircraft safely on the ground and in the process saved a lot of people. I'd call it a fine bit of flying.

As to the pilot of US Airways 1549, who was quoted as saying he and his crew were "just doing their job", how much better off would we be if more people had that attitude?

 

[Q2UnME]

He did OK in an extreme bit of circumstances, but I don't think he can be called a "hero" when 111 -including small children- died horribly.

Not saying he's a horrible pilot I guess he did the best he could with what he had but nor can I say he did a "fine bit of flying."

I remember this quite well. He was a hero. He flew the plane to the airport with no hydraulics, no flight control surfaces - just engine throttle control. Throw into the mix that the plane was "stuck" in a left turn configuration due to the failed hydrolics.

They programmed a flight simulator with the same circumstances and conditions. Less than one pilot out of ten could even reach the airport, let alone land the plane.

Q2