The Amazing Sullenberger
Saturday, January 17th, 2009Chesley B. (”Sully”) Sullenberger is a god.
Seriously. If I were to run into the guy on the street tomorrow, I would simply be in awe of his presence. That’s because Sullenberger actually crash landed a malfunctioning U.S. Airways jet on the Hudson friggin’ River and nobody was seriously injured. That is just positively amazing. It’s one of those achievements that should stand as a glaring reminder to the rest of us as to what human beings can really accomplish. That act was nothing less than the culmination of many years of intense focus, careful study and much mastering of some very tricky technical skills. Just amazing.
It’s interesting, though, that I hear so many people around me mention his experience as an F-4 fighter pilot in the U.S. Air Force. The upshot of these conversations is thank the gods for “our” military, so that people can learn such highly valued, life-saving skills. The irony never seems to dawn on these people that the mission of the armed forces is to destroy human life, whereas Sullenberger preserved human life.
But they also seem to forget that Sullenberger has been flying commercial airliners since about 1980, whereas he spent only six years in the Air Force. Why jump to the conclusion that what Sullenberger was able to do yesterday must have come from his military experience, rather than from his more numerous years as a commercial airline pilot?
And why this assumption that only the military could provide the kind of training needed to fly airplanes so skillfully? It’s true that many military pilots take their flying experience into the commercial airline industry. But surely if there was no military at all, that does not mean that we would all be doomed to flying in planes piloted by incompetents. There’s no reason to doubt that some of the billions and billions of dollars that would be spared from “national defense” each year would instead be spent by the airline industry itself, or currently existing flight schools, on continuously improving pilot training and education.
Interestingly, Sullenberger is the founder of a business that provides “technical expertise and strategic vision and direction to improve safety and reliability in a variety of high risk industries.” Sullenberger’s actions yesterday demonstrate that highly skilled individuals offering their technical expertise in the marketplace in pursuit of their own personal gain—rather than myriad bureaucrats and their rules and regulations—are the most effective at keeping people safe in potentially dangerous situations.
(Cross-posted at The Postmodern Tribune.)

















