Brace for Impact
Shortly after 3:00 in the afternoon of January 15, 2009, U.S. Airways Flight 1540, with 155 passengers and crew, took off from LaGuardia airport en route to Charlotte, North Carolina. Within minutes of take-off, a flock of Canadian geese struck the plane’s engines, completely shutting them down. At the time, co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles was flying the plane but turned the aircraft over to Captain Chesley Sullenberger. While Sullenberger, the more experienced pilot, took control of the plane, Skiles studied the map looking for possible landing sites.
Captain Sullenberger, also known as “Sully,” had only minutes to try and find a suitable landing space to avert a tragic disaster. He recognized that the aircraft could not make it back to LaGuardia and quickly realized that other smaller airports were also not an option. Within a matter of seconds, he decided to land his 150,000 pound cylindrical craft in the Hudson River.
He told passengers and crew to brace for impact and then glided the powerless airplane down to the narrow waterway. The fuselage’s aft made contact with the water first and suffered significant damage, allowing water to enter the plane. Because the fuel tanks were not completely full, however, the aircraft was able to float on the river, making it possible for passengers to exit the plane. All 155 passengers and crew made it out safely with only five sustaining serious injuries.
Overnight, Captain Sullenberger became a national hero. His skill, training, experience, and calm under enormous pressure saved the lives of everyone on board. When interviewed by Katie Couric about how he got the plane down without the loss of a single life, Captain Sully said, “One way of looking at this might be that, for 42 years, I’ve been making small regular deposits in this bank of experience, education, and training. And on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.”
Captain Sullenberger was an expert when it came to flying an airplane. For years, he had trained and studied the art of flying and on that fateful day his experience made it possible for him to land a crippled plane without loss of life in what could have been a catastrophic event. A pilot of lesser experience or expertise would probably not have been so fortunate.
Captain Chesley Sullenberger
The media and public dubbed what happened as “The Miracle on the Hudson,” and maybe God did play a part, but a pilot of lesser skill and experience may not have been the recipient of divine intervention. The truth of the matter is, God seems to take delight in helping those who do all they can to help themselves.
Let me explain. I’m ashamed to admit but there were times in school when I would pray, “Dear God, please help me to pass this test!” even though I had not studied. What I discovered was that when I properly prepared for the test, God usually answered my prayer. But when I didn’t prepare as I should have, well, I certainly didn’t make the Dean’s Honor Roll!
Is there an analogy that can be drawn from the “Miracle on the Hudson” that might apply to the challenges we face in everyday life? I think there is.
We human beings have been gifted with incredible mental capacities. We can read, write, engage in science, calculate higher mathematics, erect skyscrapers that reach to the heavens, build airplanes and rockets that travel to the moon and beyond, invent vaccines that cure diseases, perform complicated surgeries, and so many other wondrous things. What were thought to be miracles just a century or so ago are now everyday occurrences. Our lives have been immeasurably improved because of the continued advancement of learning and technology. (Of course progress can also be destructive. Learning without the guidance of wisdom can lead to greater evil.)
Where would we be without the education, training, and skill, of surgeons, teachers, engineers, research scientists and so many others who make our lives better? Trained professionals, like Captain Sully, are experts, and their years of sharpening their craft can make a difference, especially in times of crisis.
I am grieved that our culture too often minimizes or even dismisses the value of the expert. The era in which we live has often been called the Postmodern Age. This unique period of time is virtually impossible to define as it means different things to different people. One characteristic of postmodernity, however, is its suspicious nature, especially when it comes to reason and logic. The postmodern generation calls into question the idea of objectivism, believing instead that all knowledge and truth are relative. Consequently, in much of our culture there are no objective standards; truth is whatever anyone wants it to be.
Unfortunately, this rather nihilistic view of knowledge has influenced large swaths of our population and has created an attitude of mistrust and skepticism regarding those with specialized knowledge or experience. Years of training, education, and experience are not viewed with the same appreciation and respect that they were just a generation or two ago.
For instance, a person who has little to no knowledge of a particular field of study, say, cancer research, but has read articles about cancer or talked with a friend about a so-called miracle cure, may feel free to attack a renowned scientist or doctor who has spent his career engaged in how best to treat the disease. Sure, the scientist may follow a path of research that proves false later on—that’s the nature of science—but to value the opinion of a relatively uninformed layman and give it equal or greater weight to that of a highly educated and trained scientist goes against reason and logic and can have disastrous consequences.
That’s not to say that trained professionals are always right. They’re not. We should respectfully question those who have specialized training in areas in which we are uninformed. And if we’re not satisfied with their answers, we should seek a second or third opinion. No one is infallible. Still, I will trust the expert, who has studied, trained, and been peer reviewed far more than I will my neighbor who has a friend who told her that a livestock dewormer would cure the coronavirus disease.
A shadow of skepticism has blanketed our culture and left us without reliable anchors that provide reasoned and logical guidance to life’s complex challenges. It is human nature to want simple solutions to the sometimes daunting problems and questions that we face in today’s world. When we’re desperate, we will often turn to the voice that promises a quick fix, the voice that confidently asserts that he/she alone can guide us safely down from danger. I’ll take my chances with the one whose balance of education, training, and experience is sufficient enough for a large withdrawal.
