I asked my cousin, a missionary pilot in Cameroon, about the Miracle on the Hudson landing by a USAirways pilot last month. He stressed that training is the key to responding to crisis situations such as the one Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger faced in January.
I was very impressed with the way the pilot handled the water ditching. It is not easy to ditch a large airplane without tearing the airplane apart. Landing on water at those speeds is probably about the same as landing on an asphalt runway. The critical thing about landing any airplane without power is that the pilot keep the speed up so that controllability can be maintained. As long as the pilot stays in control all the way to the ground the risk of damage/injury goes down significantly. It is when the airplane stalls or approaches much to steep that serious damage occurs. I suspect that as soon as the pilot realized his engines were gone, he automatically began responding to the emergency with very little emotional involvement.
We spend most of our recurrent training preparing for emergencies, and I suspect that the airlines do even more preparation than we do. The one time I had an emergency situation, I reacted immediately within the guidelines of our emergency procedures. It was not until it was all over that emotions came into play. It is amazing what good training can do for you in a crisis.
It seems to me that this model could be applied to many crises, not only ones that occur when you're less than 1,000 feet above the George Washington bridge in NYC. I need to remember my training and experience when things come up at work rather than reacting emotionally. In my case it probably won't save lives but it's still more likely to produce a good outcome.
