Miracle or Hero on the Hudson?

Competent people impress more than any other sort of person. Regardless of their profession, if they do it well; if they have a command of their work, take pride in what they do, take their job and jerk it by the collar... they inspire me. I look at them in awe, really. I watch them like I watch very few.

It's interesting, perhaps prophetic of days to come, that at the very moment in time that a person universally described as arrogant and totally inept is disappearing from worldview, a splendidly competent airline pilot appeared on the world stage by a quirk of sheer fate not of his making.

Let the record show that Captain Chelsey B. "Sully" Sullenberger III is supremely competent and is a credit to his profession. He honored his training by what he did one bone-cold Thursday afternoon in Manhattan. He is maybe one of the most over-qualified people on earth. He takes his job seriously.

On that day, he held the lives of 154 other people in his hands, and because of the multiple split-second decisions he made, everyone got out alive. Every one. He did not fail them. Because of his mastery of what he does for a living, fathers and mothers and sons and daughters went home ship shape. All good.

Since the news of that event hit the Internet, the words miracle and hero have been thrown around. Was what Captain Sullenberger did a miracle? Is he a hero?

Miracle? No. Miracles involve the active hand of God, and I highly doubt god's intervention in any single human affair for at least the past 2000 years.

On that cold day in Manhattan, if God wasn't preoccupied, let's say, in the bathroom at the time... if that deity happened to be aware of what was happening to Flight 1549 out of all the hundreds of other planes in the air at that particular moment, I can guarantee he would have done what he always does whenever humans face impending catastrophe: he would sit and watch. He would wait and see what would happen. Wait to see how humans would work it out, if they could.

Well then. That settled, is the good Captain a bona fide, real-life hero?

One definition: a person who is regarded as a model or ideal. Another: one who does what needs to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of the consequences. A third, by a young man who's passed on: "heroes in ancient times were the link between man and perfect beings, the gods. Today, they are the link between man as he is and man as he could be."

By these and nearly any definition, Captain Sullenberger is a hero. Pilots all over the world who heard the tale raised their heads in pride when they heard the news. He is the model pilot, a shining example of what all pilots hope they'd do in the same position. By doing what he did, he honored them all. None can ask more of a human than what Cpt Sullenberger did when the moment-of-truth came. He is a pilot's pilot.

Google the story and you'll find: he did exactly what he should have done... by the book, down the line. He acted as perfectly as a human being can, step by step by step. With more than 150 lives on the edge of the abyss, he made the absolutely correct decision, time after time after time in rapid succession in a less than 5 minutes with no chance for a do-over. And after having done the impossible, he TWICE walked the aisle of the sinking plane to make certain that all had made it out alive.

Miracle? No. God was not involved. Hero? No question.

The obvious though untold story is that a lot of boring work went into shaping Capt Sully into the pilot he became. Hours of study and practice; showing up for work everyday. He did the groundwork, then as he did his job all those thousands of hours, he learned from his mistakes. He made them, I'm sure, but he showed up for work and learned. And when the time came, he was ready.

What a way to start the new Era of competence and accountability. Whatever we do for a living, whatever work defines us, in 2009 we're all faced w/ the challenge of rising up, following Capt Sullenberger's example, and being the best we can be.