We all know who these two great pilots are. They landed flight 1549 in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. From that point on these two “professional” pilots have decided tell the public that regional pilots are sum par. I have just read the final NTSB report (PDF) of the incident. I truly believe that they did a great job. They addressed the problem and worked as a team to accomplish an amazing outcome.
My problem with these two pilots is that in their moments of fame they decided to tell the world that the regional airlines have under qualified pilots that lack professionalism. They love to point out the Colgan 3407 accident or the Crash of Comair flight 5191. Major airlines have accidents too. Many of which are due to pilot error. What about the recent Air France flight 447 no one ever lowered the nose or the Southwest crash in Burbank. Regional airlines go threw the same training and check rides as major airlines.
Yes in general major airline pilot due have more experience but that is because pilots generally start at the regional and then move on to the majors. We all make mistakes and Sully although a great pilot probably would have killed all on board in most other airplanes as the NTSB report shows that the plane itself lowered the nose and ignored Sully’s inputs because he would have stalled the airplane. I do have respect for these two as they did save everyone onboard however, to use their fame to down the regional pilots was a low blow.
