Comment by ben7799 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ben7799 | Hacker News Reader

Egotistical tone to this article... good explanation of procedures on an airliner but for background the author of the blog post made a boat load of money on Web 1.0 and fancies himself as a pilot. It's way too easy for a part-timer like him to pretend this was no big deal and he could have done it too.

He writes this article with a tone of jealousy or something that the captain is taking too much credit or didn't really have a hard job or something.

The captain of the SW plane didn't even want to be identified, the press took care of that. The fact that the rest of the crew wasn't identified doesn't mean the captain is taking too much credit or that everyone thinks the rest of the crew didn't do a great job too.

No reason for him to try and take the captain down in his post, a simpler blog post praising the rest of the crew would have been better.

If you were looking for it you could probably claim an element of sexism too since he's acting like the co-pilot isn't getting any credit because he's a man. That probably takes a reader who was predisposed to that viewpoint though.

It’s way too easy for a part-timer like him to pretend this was no big deal and he could have done it too.

The author’s FAA credentials include[0] Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) Airplane Single-Engine Land (ASEL), ATP Airplane Multi-Engine Land (AMEL), ATP Helicopter, Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI), Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI), CFI-Instrument (CFII), CFI-Helicopter, and CFII-H. He flew as First Officer for a regional airline.

This is not Joe Random PPL.

[0]: https://philip.greenspun.com/flying/resume

I got a similar read from it, just because it was "routine" doesn't make it any less impressive. There were ~150 lives in the hands of that captian and keeping your cool in that situation should be commended (esp compared to situations like Air France where panic seemed to play a large factor).

Right. Doing it in the simulator and doing it in real life when the engine has exploded and the cabin has depressurized and you've got serious injuries and panic onboard are not the same thing.

Practicing in the simulator is routine, landing a plane that's had an explosion is not.

Nothing wrong with celebrating a job well done.

Yeah, no idea why you're getting downvoted.

My father used to be involved in law enforcement(and still does a bunch of public safety stuff). As I was told you can train for something constantly and yet you won't know how you react until you're put into the situation.

In my mind, praise costs you almost nothing while saying "well, actually..." just makes it you look petty.

Completely agree with you.

The concept that saving ~150 people was "just a part of your job" and nothing special is insane. The fact the pilot did everything right IS commendable, it shows dedication to her job, the skill and knowledge required to do it, and the execution of all of that in an exemplary fashion that resulted in many lives saved.

As a society we spend days talking about presidential lawyers, talking heads and celebrities regardless of how much they deserve to be discussed or focused on. I can't think of a better example to offset the mindless drivel then to stop and appreciate someone for doing a job well done with the lives of so many entrusted to them.

Impressive to whom? Regardless, I think debating down this avenue is moot since to me the opinion piece was in response to the media hysteria, rather than the crew's specific actions.

I think you are over-interpreting.

Rando from the internet thinks OP is right on target.

Spot-on.

also omitted from Greenspun's article was the fact that the plane first listed more than 40 degrees and had to be recovered from that attitude.

But this completely contradicted his narrative that the autopilot just takes care of that sort of "mis-rigging".

Yes, the pilots practice for it, yes they are experienced, and yes they have help on a large plane. But a successful outcome is not a foregone conclusion, and a hundred things could go wrong that would end it in disaster. Acting like it is no big deal is a really bad take, and the pilot and crew deserve every accolade for getting it right.

Greenspun is notoriously, shall we say, “contrarian” when it comes to modern gender issues, so I don’t think that’s an incorrect gloss on the piece.

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