Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Everyday Decision Making

· Personal Essays

Chesley Sullenberger is a man who had many years of experience under his belt. He received his pilots’ license at the age of 14 and now at 57 years old, he was labeled a hero. Sullenberger did not become as skillful as he is overnight. It was the work of all of those years of experience and preparation for what would happen in a worse case scenario. He was able to put his experience to the test in the case of US Airways Flight 1549 (Hewitt, Egan, Herbst, McGee, & Bass, 2009).

Sullenberger’s emotional response had a lot to do with the success of everyone surviving that plane crash. Had he been anything but calm and collected, the passengers would have reacted as well (Associated Press, 2009). There is a possibility that had he not had himself together, he may have panicked or his crew may have panicked which may have impeded his ability to land the plane safely. Fear leads to a great diversity of reactions (Hastie & Dawes, 2010). By controlling fear of what may happen and taking control of the situation, he was able to control the outcome. His emotional response even carried over to when the people were getting off of the plane (Associated Press, 2009). As the plane took on water, his mannerisms were controlled and people were able to feed off of how he was reacting. He also was able to make a decision that ultimately would save the life of everyone on board by landing in the Hudson verses trying to make it to another airport. Had he tried to make it to another airport, he may have very well come up short (White, 2014).

Had he been a less experienced pilot, he may have not been prepared for that moment. There is no amount of reading textbooks, talking about it, or understand best practices can lead a person in preparing for what happened. Fear and panic are real possibilities. I look at myself when I first started riding a motorcycle and about the decisions that I made back then and the decisions I make now. As a slightly older rider, there have been a lot of things I have experienced and there are things I prepare and look out for such as car drivers texting on the side of me or talking on their phone. When I first started riding, I did not do that because I always figured I could speed past them. As I met more and more people who had been hit by cars from doing that same thing, I learned how to pay attention. As I ride, I wonder what would if this person did this, or this person did that. I am certain that there have been times when Sullenberger wondered “what if”. There is even a possibility that he had been in a situation where things were not going exactly the way as planned. In either case, not being as experienced as he is now may have been tragic.

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