US Airways Flight 1549

Capt. Sullenberger and Amelia Earhart at the Museum of Flight

Monday evening I was fortunate to be in the audience at Seattle’s Museum of Flight for a  presentation by the recently retired Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the now-legendary pilot of US Airways Flight 1549 who was able to successfully land a plane in New York City’s Hudson River.

He began the evening by showing the NTSB’s animated version of the US Airways 1549 flight path (below) and then went on to talk a bit about his family, his upbringing, his training as a pilot, the importance of preparation and teamwork, and his philosophy of work and life. After he was done, some of the kids in the audience got to ask a few questions as did some of the aviation geeks from our high-tech community.

(Here’s a link to a more detailed report on the evening by SeattlePI.com aerospace reporter Aubrey Cohen)

Before Captain Sullenberger’s speech, I spent some time in the Amelia Earhart exhibit, which will be at the museum until May, 2010. In addition to photo panels and film clips telling Ms. Earhart’s life story, there’s a section showing some of the products she endorsed to help pay the bills, including Amelia Earhart luggage and Lucky Strike cigarettes.

All in all, quite an inspiring evening.

Jay Leno on US Airways flight 1549 again..

Jay Leno is getting a lot of mileage out of US Airways Flight 1549.

The latest: last night- Friday, Jan. 23. Once again, Terry Maxon at the Airline Biz Blog stayed up late enough to watch and take notes:

My favorite:

“I tell you, Kevin, the economy is bad, the economy is bad. People are hoping geese will hit their plane so US Airways will give them $5,000, that’s how bad it is.”

jay_leno_120x120

Ok, I’m in. Stuck at the Airport tweets arriving soon

As one of my social media (and life) idols, Benet Wilson, explains in this blog entry, “If you weren’t using some form of social media … when US Airways Flight 1549 crashed into the Hudson River, you were late getting news of the event.”

ausair

(JKrums’ already iconic image)

Wilson heard about the crash just moments after it happened via her Twitter account – and was able to stay ahead of the traditional media outlets by monitoring the incredible unfolding of events via “tweets” from folks looking out their windows.

So I’m in. Putting aside everything (lunch, articles due, the laundry) to get my Twitter account ship-shape so that next time anyone here is stuck at the airport – or if I am – we’ll know what’s up.

Wow! Miracle on the Hudson

hudson-plane

Stories about the incredible emergency landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in New York’s Hudson River today are all over the place and it’s an amazing true-life story.

More information will no doubt come out in the next few days, but for now, here are a few links to Web sites with a good round-up of stories about what happened. Newsday.com has articles, videos, and a photo gallery of more than 70 images. The New York Times has even more extensive coverage, including regular updates about the status of the plane, including information about where the plane is tied up (“along the promenade south of Chamber Street and north of Battery Park City, near Warren Street…”) and a phone number for people to call if they find anything that might belong to any of the passengers.

And what have we all learned from this?  Pay attention to the pre-flight safety instructions.

(Photo above courtesy grego! from Flickr)