Living in the greater NYC area, I hear a lot about what is going on in the big apple. US Airways Flight 1549 has been in the local news from the minute that plane made its first splash in the Hudson. You’ve probably heard by now the absolutely spectacular job Captain Sully did landing the plane in the river after both engines we taken out by a flock of Canadian Geese. Today the NTSB confirmed that both engines did have bird remains lodged in them. In order to confirm this, the NTSB had to fish the engine out of the bottom of the Hudson, where it came to a rest after detaching from the plane.
We are now living in a time of global economic crisis, massive tax payer funded bailouts, and constant budget cuts to federal and state infrastructure. Yet for some reason we’ve deemed it necessary to spend who knows how much money on pulling an engine out of the river, just to confirm what a true hero already knew. Now if the pilot was high on crack, or harassing a stewardess at the time of the crash, I could see a reason to investigate further. However in this case, we’ve got a man who pulled off the unthinkable, and safely executed one of the most difficult landings possible, saving 155 lives in the process. So why can’t we just take the guy’s word, and save ourselves a few bucks in investigation costs? Its pretty clear to me that Capt. Sully is competent.
Also, the Wall Street Journal reports that the plane salvage is now in New Jersey, where the full investigation could take up 18 months, to confirm what the Captain knew in 18 seconds. I’d love to see a figure of how much this is actually costing tax payers.
Comments
Leave a Reply