There’s a guy who earned every nickel he ever made in his career and then some, all with one decision. A lot of times you hear, “the pilot was a hero,” when all he did was what any pilot could’ve and would’ve done. But this was different. A brilliant, timely decision, made coolly under massive pressure. I don’t think most pilots would’ve made that decision. “Hero” is a pretty nebulous word, but, to me, Captain Sullenberger showed us what the very best pilots do: Make great and timely decisions when lives are on the line.
Of course, for every Sully, there’s an Air France 447 pilot and a Colgan 3407 pilot and a Comair 5191 pilot. They’re the weak link a lot of the time, precisely because they’re human. But they still have something that is both unachievable by a computer and necessary.
