Thank God for Good Pilots

As I listened to the news this morning about the "Miracle on the Hudson" I found myself reminiscing about my dad. He was a pilot as well as a copilot and navigator at different times throughout his career, and I remember a few stories he told about the awesome responsibility he felt up there in the cockpit. Responsibility for the lives of the people riding in the cabin of the airplane. Over the course of his career he had only one "belly-flop" landing, and even when the landing gear would not deploy he managed to bring the plane safely home with no injuries. He was rightly proud of that.
Today, Captain Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III, a former USAF F-4 pilot, is justly hailed as a hero for bringing his passengers down safely (albeit wetly) in the Hudson River, after a freak accident of two geese flying into his two engines and shutting them both down shortly after takeoff. Kudos to you, sir, and I join many other Americans in saluting you for a job well done.

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