Thursday, January 15, 2009

Safe Landing in Hudson River: Not a Friggin' Miracle!

I get SO SICK of God getting credit for heroic deeds of real men and women. Today it's the so-called miracle on the Hudson, when all 155 passengers survived after US Airways Flight 1549 lost power and was forced to crash-land in the Hudson River in New York.

If God deserves any recognition, maybe it should be for sending that flock of geese right into flight path of the Airbus A300. But it was the PILOT and CREW who saved that plane, through quick thinking, cool heads, and the skills they learned from thousands of hours of training.

God had nothing to do with saving that plane.

Those pilots spent enormous amounts of times in flight simulators, encountering almost every imaginable catastrophe. They practiced landing without power, without wheels, without brakes, without flap control ... you name it. They even practiced – yes – water landings. Before they got on that plane today, they already knew exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.

This was no miracle at all. It was a highly trained crew, who long ago started preparing for exactly what happened today, and who, when the crisis arrived, held up under pressure, kept their heads, remembered their training, and executed what they'd been taught.

And once the cockpit crew did their jobs, the cabin crew did their jobs: They got everyone off the plane quickly and efficiently, and onto the rescue boats, before the Airbus A300 filled with water and sank. The pilots got them down, and the cabin crew got them off.

This was no miracle, it was a simple act of heroism and competence.

Well done, US Air crew! As for God ... thanks for nothing.




9 comments:

  1. Amen. Timely and accurately giving credit where credit is due, to the Flight 1549 Pilots and Cabin Crew.

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  2. All praises to God.. where would YOU be without God? Keep on taking the gamble that you will perish and there is nothing but darkness, nothing. Or acknowledge His presence, and accept the certainty of death with the peace of mind that He provided you with the best plan for your life.

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  3. continuation-- I can see why you feel like God did nothing, but send the birds in to the flight path... but what I am trying to say is that we are going to die, and we need to thank God everyday for the air in our lungs, the beat in our hearts, and for the calm, cool, level headed nature the crew and pilot had during that circumstance... we do not expect God to save us from tradgedy, but when tradgedy occurs.. we thank Him for the path He chose, because it is the best path for us...

    You can't stop me from praying, and you can't stop me from loving.

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  4. Reminds me of Todd Flanders: "Thank you for sending us Lisa to protect us against the moth you sent us."
    Couldn't God make things easier for everyone by preventing the flock (or is it skein?) of geese from getting in the way in the first place?
    PEOPLE were heroic. Praise Darwin!

    Not My God
    www.sarahtrachtenberg.com

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  5. Ask the Pilot what he has to say about it? He undoubtedly said a 100 times or more "Oh God! Thank God!"
    God Bless you!

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  6. Don't forget all the other competent humans involved, such as the engineers that designed the Airbus, and all the folks at various regulatory agencies which mandate the kind of safety features that kept the Airbus from sinking right away.

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  7. Brazil church collapses, killing 8
    Posted: 01:16 PM ET

    (CNN) — Brazilian firefighters called off their search for survivors
    Monday, one day after a church roof collapse in Sao Paulo killing at least
    eight people and injuring more than 100 others.

    All those listed as missing have been located and officials now believe
    they will not find any more victims, BandNews FM said on its website, citing
    Sao Paulo’s Assistant Secretary of Public Security Ronaldo Marzagao.

    The public relations firm handling communications for the church,
    Brickmann & Associados Comunicacao, listed on its website the names of eight
    fatalities and more than 100 parishioners being treated at 15 hospitals.

    The youngest fatality was 15 years old; the oldest was 80, the agency
    said.

    Officials had no comment on what caused the collapse at Reborn in Christ
    Church, a popular evangelical congregation in the heart of Brazil’s largest
    metropolis. The incident took place at approximately 7 p.m. (4 p.m. ET).

    ReplyDelete
  8. LOL....SOON MY FRIEND, YOU WILL SEE THAT GOD IS REAL. YOU WILL GO THROUGH A TRIAL IN YOUR LIFE THAT WILL REQUIRE YOU TO ACKNOWLEDGE GOD ONCE AND FOR ALL. AND LIKE PHARAOH IN THE BIBLE WHEN HE WAS GOING AFTER THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, YOU WILL COME TO GOD ON YOUR VERY KNEES, CAUSE HE WILL HELP YOU... AND YOU WILL KNOW THAT IT IS GOD!!

    ReplyDelete

Dear readers -- I am no longer blogging and after leaving these blogs open for two years have finally stopped accepting comments due to spammers. Thanks for your interest. If you'd like to write to me, click on the "Contact" link at the top. Thanks! -- CJ.

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