The Master of Understatement

Did you guys watch the "60 Minutes" interview with Captain Sullenberger and the crew of Flight 1549?

Wow. I know I'm a little hormonal at the moment, but I was just a mess watching that. Did it get to anyone else as much as it got to me? I'm trying to figure out my feelings about this, and if I can, I think it will help me get a handle on them. Or not...as I watched him and the crew receive keys to New York City from Mayor Bloomberg, and then on Letterman, I got choked up all over again.

The guy is such a cool customer. Even as he was talking about being in the situation, assessing the damage, and figuring out what to do (all of which happened within less than 5 minutes, by the way), he matter-of-factly said things like he knew there was a problem, and said he told the tower, "We're going in the Hudson." As he spoke of his decision-making process, it was obvious that the guy is an incredible professional. He trained for such situations, and years of experience enabled him to put it all together and do his job, and he managed to save 155 people in the process. Incredible.

This might bother some people, but when Katie Couric asked him if he prayed at all during this time, he (respectfully) said that he was pretty sure the people in the back had that covered for him, and he said there just wasn't time. He was focused on the problem at hand, he was using all his knowledge and talent and experience to land that plane safely, and that's all he was thinking about. I don't want to get into a philosophical debate about the presence or absence of divine guidance, but I'll just say I thought it was refreshing to hear that, and a pleasant contrast to the usual blather of everyone, from the wide receiver who made the game-winning catch to the politician who just won an election, thanking God for their triumph. Sometimes we make our own luck and our own miracles, and this captain worked hard for many years to get to the point where he was knowledgeable and capable enough to be able to make such a landing.

I think almost everyone has a fear of being in an airplane crash. I have no fear of flying, and I've been known to doze off during takeoff. The thought of crashing, however, scares the bejeebers out of me, and a water landing would be about a hundred times worse. Every passenger on that flight has talked about the preternatural calm of the captain, and the extreme competence of the rest of the crew. I think we can all only hope that we would have such a crew on any flight we were on that got into such trouble. In the course of our lives, there are certain people into whose hands we put our lives and those of our loved ones, and knowing that there are people like Captain Sullenberger and his crew makes me sleep a little easier.

I was also touched by hearing about the boats that came immediately to the crash site. The captain gave them every bit as much credit for saving the passengers as he's received. I still remember John McCain and Sarah Palin talking during the campaign about how the "liberal elite" live in Washington, D.C. and New York City. I don't even know what the hell that means, but I think those people are some of the bravest and best in our country, and if their response to 9/11 didn't convince everyone, their actions on the Hudson River should do the trick! I know my friend RaQuel, a lifelong resident of New York City, was offended by that idiotic "liberal elite" comment, and I was offended, too. I suspect that RaQuel would have enjoyed talking to them about "real America."

But I digress. Captain Sullenberger has received letters from all over the world, and his wife read one that she and her husband said was their favorite. A woman's elderly father lives in a highrise overlooking the Hudson. The woman thanked the captain and the crew for taking action that saved not only all the passengers, but potentially people living in buildings near there...like her father. He is a survivor of the Holocaust, and she went on to say that he has always told her (and I'm paraphrasing here) that we can never know how saving just one life can affect so many others. Who knows what that one person might accomplish in their life, or who they might influence, or what their children might accomplish? Who knows how the world might be affected if that one person is not a part of it? You could tell that the letter got to the captain, and I can understand why.

I hope they are all talking to a counselor--one flight attendant in particular seemed to be having a very hard time with some of her memories, and I would guess there is an element of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder there. Even the cool-as-a-cucumber captain said that for several days afterwards, he had thoughts and doubts about whether he did things right or if he could have done things better, even though all his passengers survived.

Is Captain Sullenberger a hero? A reluctant one, but yes, he's a hero. Especially to all those people on that flight, and to all their family members, including the man whose brother died in the 9/11 attacks, and who couldn't bear the thought of his family losing another brother. And to all of us, who love to hear that in a world that seems to tolerate (and sometimes even encourage) mediocrity, there are those who refuse it and believe in being the best they can be at their jobs. Here's to the Captain and his crew. Huzzah!