This morning I had a sharp reminder of how un-rare great pilots are.
Through a few videos, I was reminded of this simple fact: Rarely do we hear about great pilots. Generally we hear about the “horrible pilots”, and get the scewed news stories. But, that’s the news, isn’t it? If there aren’t blood and guts, they won’t report on it.
Forced Landing on Highway
(If you can’t see the video, try going here)
This guy had seconds to react. He chose a very smart course, rather than trying to ‘make it’. He knew he couldn’t make it, so the highway became his runway. And now the guy will live to fly another day.
Can you imagine being in this situation? Having only seconds to make a life and death decision, recalling in an instant all the training and experience up until that point.
The truth is, that there are far more great pilots out there, then there are pilots you see on TV, having made poor decisions. (I won’t say they’re bad pilots, there are too many contributing factors)
Huge props to this guy! He did a fantastic job, and I give him major credit for making a great decision.
A little off the top
(If you can’t see the video, try going here)
This video doesn’t show any particularly extraordinary skills. Although, that dude was going to skim the tips of the grass at the end of the runway before hitting the first inch of pavement.
Also, no real fault of the pilot here that I can think of. It could be argued he should have been aware of the car. Then again, when was the last time a car drove in front of you in the final seconds of landing?
Thankfully no one was hurt here. It looks as though the wheel takes out the driver, but it didn’t. The pilots were also low enough and slow enough to where they survived.
Conclusion
We never hear about the great pilots, but they are out there. Every single day there are hundreds, even thousands of pilots making second-by-second life saving decisions. We never hear about them, because more often than not, they succeed in their instinct.
No news doesn’t make it on the news.
We can all strive to become no-news, un-rare pilots.
Join the Conversation!
When was the last time you saw good pilots on the news?
This article was posted in Aviation, Blog, Flight Safety, Flightsim Tips, Real World
Please note: We reserve the right to delete comments that are snarky, offensive, or off-topic. If in doubt, read the Comments Policy.
