Quote:
Originally Posted by W0X0F
Just went to see Sully two days ago. My report will follow shortly...
Well, here are my thoughts on
Sully. When I said "shortly" (above), I was thinking in terms of geological timeframes.
As I said, this movie got so much right. I like the fact that they used the terms QRH and APU without feeling like they had to have the characters explain it:
"Grab the QRH! You know, the Quick Reference Handbook, the thing that provides guidance for emergency and abnormal situations."
They just presented the exchanges between the pilots the way pilots would talk.
OK, here are the nits that I can remember now, over a week after seeing the movie.
(1) The visuals showing the flight path of the emergency aircraft, both the F4 flashback and the Airbus descent to the Hudson, showed the airplanes kind of bobbing and weaving when the actual flight paths were almost certainly the much less entertaining rock steady descents. In the case of the F4, if it was a flight control issue (e.g. losing hydraulic assist to the controls) then, sure, it's possible he had to wrestle it a little more and so maybe the flight path would be more erratic. But for the Airbus, the plane was flying just fine and Sully would not be jinking around the sky.
(2) The scenes in the back, immediately following the bird strike but before the FAs knew what was happening, showed the FAs already up in the cabin. They went around reiterating the need to check seat belts for security. In normal ops, they would have been in their seats below 10000'. Like I said, this is a real nit.
(3) During the simulator re-creations of the event, I noticed that the Captain in the second one (the one that diverted to Teterboro) kept her hands on the throttles throughout the scenario and even ******ed the throttles at touchdown as one would normally do. These throttles are merely ornamental after both engines have been lost and the QRH would probably leave them in the flight idle position. It may just be "muscle memory" at work here, and it certainly didn't do any harm. I just happened to notice it. Nit.
When they did the simulations, and the first one ended with a successful return to LGA, I immediately thought what BS it was that the pilots reacted instantly and began the turn back within a couple of seconds of the engines rolling back. I can't imagine that ever being the case and I loved it when this was addressed (Sully spoke up and mentioned this exact thing).
I said it before itt: if you have to ditch a plane this is almost best case scenario, except for the lack of any power. Long, wide, protected waterway with rescue boats only minutes away. The other big negative was the frigid water and I wonder if Skyles' line in the movie was added or if he really said it. I loved that line. (When asked by the NTSB if he would do anything differently, he said "Yeah. I'd do it in July.")
Now, although I did say it was best case scenario, I'm not saying it was no big thang. If I was faced with this situation, my sphincter would definitely pucker. This incident goes down in aviation history: A forced water landing in a jet weighing over 100,000 lbs with 155 souls on board and not one life was lost! It could have been so much worse and full credit to Sully and Skyles and the cabin crew.
So bottom line: good movie, more accurate than any other aviation movie I've seen.