[BITList] More on 1549

[John Feltham]

Congress Hears From Hudson Controller, Captain, And Crew

On Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Patrick Harten, the air traffic controller  
who was on duty the day US Airways Flight 1549 ditched in the Hudson,  
spoke about the event publicly for the first time. He told members of  
the House Subcommittee on Aviation that when he heard Capt. Chesley  
"Sully" Sullenberger tell him, "We're gonna be in the Hudson," he  
asked him to repeat himself, even though he heard him just fine. "I  
simply could not wrap my mind around those words," Harten said calmly.  
"People don't survive landings on the Hudson River, and I thought this  
was a death sentence. I believed at that moment, I was going to be the  
last person to talk to anyone on that plane alive." Harten said that  
during the emergency itself, he was hyper-focused. "I had no choice  
but to think and act quickly, and remain calm. But when it was over,  
it hit me hard. It felt like hours before I learned about the heroic  
water landing that Captain Sullenberger and his crew had managed. Even  
after I learned the truth, I could not shake the image of tragedy in  
my mind. ... I felt like I had been hit by a bus." Harten will return  
to work later this week for the first time since the ditching. The  
panel also heard from Capt. Sullenberger, who warned that airlines of  
the future may not be as safe as airlines today. "I am worried that  
the airline-piloting profession will not be able to continue to  
attract the best and the brightest," Sullenberger said. "The current  
experience and skills of our country's professional airline pilots  
come from investments made years ago when we were able to attract the  
ambitious, talented people who now frequently seek lucrative  
professional careers elsewhere," he said. "I do not know a single  
professional airline pilot who wants his or her children to follow in  
their footsteps."

His pay has been cut by 40 percent in recent years and his pension has  
been downgraded, he said. This may not be news to those of us in the  
aviation world, but it will be interesting to see if America's  
favorite pilot can get the attention of the public and Congress by  
making clear that the economic changes that have made airline pilots'  
careers less appealing may ultimately affect safety. "Americans have  
experienced huge economic difficulties in recent months, but airline  
employees have been experiencing those challenges and more for eight  
years," Sullenberger said. "We've been hit by an economic tsunami,  
September 11, bankruptcies, fluctuating fuel prices, mergers, loss of  
pensions and revolving-door management teams who have used airline  
employees as an ATM.... The single most important piece of safety  
equipment is an experienced, well-trained pilot."

The panel, whose purpose was to examine what safety issues may have  
been revealed by the ditching, also heard from the rest of the US  
Airways crew and several officials from the aviation industry and  
regulatory agencies. During discussions, the panel suggested they  
might review rules regarding what airplanes must be equipped with life  
rafts, whether passengers should be instructed to stay away from the  
rear exits in the event of a water landing, and if the labor laws that  
govern the airlines should be separated from those that govern the  
railroads. In response to questions about the birds, Sullenberger said  
he believed the collision that shut down both engines was likely a  
"fluke," and it would be difficult in any case to reduce or control  
bird populations. He did say that it would be worthwhile to review  
engine certification standards in regard to bird strikes. Robert  
Sumwalt, of the NTSB, said those standards will be reviewed as part of  
the board's ongoing investigation into the accident.
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