The Plane That Never Crashed

Pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger is a legend. Actually, he is more like god. Against all odds, with his engines blown off, he managed to land his plane, American Airlines 1949 into the freezing Hudson river with hardly any injuries to his crew and passengers. This incident could have easily turned disastrous if he missed and crashed on land and taken out a city block. Even a couple of degrees either way when landing the plane would have shreded the plane and every one in it into fish food.

By the way, the plane does have a DITCHING SWITCH, which shut down all holes in the plane that may allow water to enter. I never heard of such a switch before but one should expect such a safety feature like this.

If an Indian pilot who was twice as skilled be able to pull this stunt off? Even if he had to land in our rivers, how much time would it take the rescue teams to reach the site. I think, without sounding pessimistic, the chances of survival would drop considerable. All we have to console our self, when we catch a flight, is that our pilots are so good that there have been no airplane crashes taking place inIndia for quite sometime. But that doesn't stop me from raising doubt over the way the planes are maintained. Kinda similar to what i say to myself when I go to a roadside restaurant "As long as the waiter looks clean I think the food is clean. I rather not look into the kitchen and spoil my appetite."