Miracle on the Hudson

A friend and I were talking a few days ago and both admitted to crying while watching 60 Minutes Sunday night (a show I never watch) while hearing the crew of US Air 1549 tell their story. Katie Couric usually has a much different effect on me.

In the days since the infamous water landing I have read accounts of the experience from passengers and watched Sully and his crew on countless programs. When the drama and emotion got to be a bit over the top, I appreciated First Officer Jeffrey Stiles who when Dave Letterman asked if he had experienced a lot of posttraumatic stress as a result of the crash replied, "Oh absolutely, but going to the Inauguration, the Super Bowl, and of course Dave Letterman helped me get over that."

This story captured a nation.

It is simply unheard of for a commercial airliner to experience a crash and have all passengers, including a baby and a woman in a wheelchair, survive. That has our attention. And then there is the indelible images many of us have of another January crash (this one in the Potomac in 1982) in which very few (8??) survived. The Hudson in January is not a great place for a swim. The instantaneous and capable response of the captain and the ferries in the Harbor moved us.

But I think underlying all of these reasons is this. We finally got a good ending to a story about New York and airplanes, one in which the resilience, competence, and training of the American public paid off and the old, weak, infirm, and young were saved by the heroism of the few.

After the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters and the losses of September 11, the Miracle on the Hudson gives us hope that we can make a difference.