Flying By the Seat of Your Pants Stuff - By Robin

I live in NY, and had planned to blog about "seasonal stuff", which I may do at a later date.

After what happened here yesterday, I feel the need to switch gears.

A plane enroute to Charlotte from NY, US Airways, made an emergency landing in the Hudson River when a flock of birds hit the plane and caused severe engine trouble. I'm sure you heard about it on the news.

There were over 150 people on the plane, and no casualities resulted. The pilot is being heralded as a hero, and indeed he is.

Can you imagine how it must have felt being a passenger on that plane? I can't....I would have had my heart in my mouth.

When we had our recent Beyond the Stuff offsite meeting in South Carolina, I, in fact, flew on a US Airways flight to Charlotte. That could have been me on that plane.

How would I have reacted?

It's been getting huge television coverage here in NY, and probably worldwide. The glowingly positive end result is truly a miracle.

The pilot had decades of training behind him and immense skill to save all those lives. How do you thank someone for doing that? No doubt all survivors are celebrating big time, when it could have been so easily the opposite.

Life can sure be fragile.

But, where do you go from here? I'm curious to know how the passengers will feel about flying again? Not that I'm saying they should be scared or concerned. But, it can get you thinking.

A girl in my gym came in last night seriously rattled because she has an upcoming trip where she planned to fly, and now she doesn't want to go. She is supposed to go with her husband, and possibly children, but she feels like she wants to bail out. She doesn't want to project her fears on them, but she is insecure at the moment. It's interesting because she is a doctor, involved intimately on a daily basis with people's bodies and lives, and that doesn't phase her. Maybe it's a matter of control? She can control her actions in the operating room, but she's not a pilot. Anyone who flies places their life in the hands of the plane's pilot. And, we don't even get to meet him/her. Think about that. Would we have a doctor operate on us without meeting them, unless we were unconscious and it was an emergency?

Hmmmm......

This goes to show that much of what we do in life...decisions we make.....paths we follow....etc....are a true leap of faith. We can trust our guts to guide us, but we sometimes have to let go out of the outcome. We give our faith over to those who services we need to take care as best they can. And, that's all we can do under certain circumstances.

I'm just so happy for all the survivors of this plane incident. And, pray that after further investigation, they'll come up with a method of "bird control" so that perhaps this might be avoided in the future.