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Let me tell you something… My take on the Hudson River Landing
By Charles Martin | January 18, 2009
I thought about this the other day watching the coverage of the USAir landing in the Hudson River. People I know with bad language skills start sentences with “let me tell you something…”. We are supposed to stop everything and hear them out.
But in this case, it’s important.
While Sully the pilot is my new hero, my heroes are the folks we often take for granted.
When the plane landed and Sully was going through the aisles making sure everyone was OK, a ferry boat was there in a few minutes. It’s manned by an average Joe that got his 15 minutes that day. He shops at a store you don’t like. He drinks at a bar you’d never frequent. He and his wife probably think a big vacation is something you wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot-pole. He was prepared. His crew of five different dialects that threw out the life rings were great. They are the people we take for granted and often hate under our breath. I heard them speaking on NPR. These are the folks we get frustrated with in American retail or restaurants — the ones that can’t speak our language very well. Lo and behold they were the guys throwing the life rings and getting people off that wing. Does this tell us anything about life? You just really never friggin know who’s gonna be there at the “end”… now do you?
Let’s give them a hand of applause!
My family is steeped in aviation history. My sister still walks the aisles of a major airline as a flight attendant in her 30-something year. My father is a retired Sully. My mother was a customer service ace for a big airline for 30 years. I know first hand that it’s real easy to be frustrated with the airline dance. It’s easy to yell at the counter guy because you didn’t get the upgrade. Sure, I’m the first to say that the business is really screwed up. But jeezus, what a nice day that was huh? In all the bad news, it was great to see us come together when it was time to come together.
It looks like one of the most perceived of riskiest airlines still had Sully manning the helm. It makes me suppose they have recruiters that believe they’d like to replicate Sully and they do and that if my family is aboard USAir in the future, we’ll be fine. I don’t love USAir but I’d say that it gives me a nice feeling that the world can come to a standing halt – even in the worst of business circumstances (all airlines being broke) – and it will all work out.
Next time you’re sitting in 24F and you’d like to be in 3E just chill and make the best of it. You can yell at the call center tomorrow. At least there’s a great chance that these folks are gonna drop your stupid 4th coke and save your godamm life.
That day was awesome and I am impressed by you Sully, boat captain, life vest throwers, flight attendants, passengers, NY cops and firemen of New York — all of you that worked on that day and at that time.
Thanks for all you do.
Topics: Greats in business | No Comments »