The ability to stay calm and focused in a moment of sheer crisis by the pilot and copilot of the US Airways plane crash into the Hudson River really deserves a shoutout. I am simply amazed at the skill of how these guys managed this crisis.
Released today, I was listening to the conversation between the controller and the pilot available here:-
Whilst most of the media has focused (quite rightly) on the heroics of the pilots, it is really worth listening to the air traffic controller “debugging” the situation (transcript here).
1. Offer an immediate solution:-
“OK, yeah, you need to return to Laguardia. Turn left heading of uh, 2-2-0.”
2. Communicate to others in the team quickly:-
“Tower, stop your departures. We got an emergency returning.”
“He lost thrust in both engines, he said.”
3. Start thinking of a contingency plan:-
“Cactus 1529, if we can get it to you, do you want to try to land runway 1-3?”
“All right cactus 1549. It’s going to be a left. Traffic to runway 3-1.”
And the line I like the most in this entire conversation. When all else was failing to check-in with the people closer to the crisis:-
“OK, what do you need to land?”
As it turned out this was in, software speak, a Severity 1 crisis, and there was nothing the controller, Patrick Harten, could do to help. But he certainly showed every attribute you would expect in a crisis manager, so I’ll send a shoutout to him as well…
