Rating: 4 | Votes: 1 | Views: 1710 | Comments: 2 | Favorited: 0
Tags: flight - years - crew - experience - passengers
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Experience and Longevity
Views: 1,710Added: Mon. Jan 19, 2009 10:42pm
Posted in: Aging
How important are experience and longevity? Ask the 150 passengers who walked away from Flight 1549 after an apparent double bird strike took out both engines, forcing the pilot to ditch in the Hudson River.
It was obvious in the immediate aftermath that Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger’s 5-member crew performed their jobs to perfection under intense life-and-death pressure. Now we’re learning more about the crew and two striking facts jump out -- their age and their experience.
Sullenberger is 57 years old with 29 years of commercial flying experience.
His co-pilot, Jeffrey Skiles is 49 and started working with US Airways 23 years ago.
The three flight attendants have a combined 92 years of experience on the job. They’re the ones who opened emergency exits, helped passengers put on life jackets and directed them out of the plane. Sheila Dail, 57, joined the company in 1980. Doreen Welsh, 58, started in 1970, and Donna Dent, 51, joined US Airways in 1982.
They’re the kind of employees who are the first to be laid off when companies hit an economic bump in the road. It’s a good thing they weren’t laid off last week.
Marc Middleton
Bolder Broadcasting, Inc. ©2006-2012 Bolder Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.
aurora
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Posted 1:19pm January 28th, 2009I heard this morning on MSNBC that one of the passengers was saying that the $5000 offered by the airline for their "emotional trauma" was not really enough or something like that. What an ingrate! The 155 passengers on that plane ought to contribute to a "Thank you" fund for their unbelievable good fortune to have had the crew aboard you write about. That one of them would now make a pitch or implied threat to sue???? The man who talked about it DID give the name of this person so I hope (this once) he's harrassed into proper shame. The experience they had--a second chance at life, to forever intensify what's left of their lives--was GOOD emotional trauma.
Terry
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Posted 2:32pm January 22nd, 2009Wow, Marc! Thanks for all this inside info re the crew of Flight 1549. I hadn't heard these stats before. It does my heart good to know that their life and work experience gave them the tools they needed to help save all those precious lives. And, knowing their ages now even makes me more proud of them. I guess there really is something to say for having been on this earth for awhile and it can be quite advantageous in a crisis of gigantic proportions like 1549. Nice to know.
Terry