Miracle on the Hudson

In the first 16 days of January, US businesses have announced over 80,000 additional job cuts. These reductions follow on top of a 2008 year where the US economy lost more jobs than in any year since 1945.  

Unemployment has risen to 7.2%.  Consensus estimates seem to support 8.65% unemployment by year-end 2009, with the recession continuing into 2010 where unemployment could reach as high as 10%.  Each percentage point equals 1.4 million jobs.  By next Christmas, another 2-3 million Americans could be without work.  (And I write this, sadly, without even being able to fathom the global crisis.)  

The American (and perhaps the Global) financial system has been structurally damaged.  We can debate whether that damage was really done over the past 10-20 years, but we only just realized the problem now.

As academics told us in Tokyo in September before the crisis was fully realized, "there will be a lot of pain ahead."  That pain is now clearly felt and readily evident.  The Wall Street Journal recently published obituaries of five financiers who have committed suicide in the past quarter.

In the midst of all of that bad news, miracles stand out.  US Airways Flight 1549, fresh off its takeoff Thursday from sub-freezing weather at LaGuardia to Charlotte, apparently hit a flock of large birds, crippling both engines.  

At one critical moment in time, the pilot, C.B. ("Sully") Sullenberger, made a decision that I can't imagine making in a split second.  He had sufficient power to make it across the East River and across Manhattan, but then he faced the split-second decision of his life with a plane full of explosive jet fuel:  "Do I try to stretch the glide to an airport, which could place thousands of lives at risk if I miscalculate?"  -- or -- "Do I ditch the plane in the Hudson River, knowing that the odds of pilot and passenger fatalities are high?"  

Just before he ditched the plane into the Hudson, he calmly instructed the passengers:  "Brace for impact."  At the time that I am posting this entry, a flight tracking website -- flightaware.com -- shows the duration of the flight from takeoff to landing as 6 minutes.  

All passengers were rescued.  New York Governor Patterson and City Mayor Bloomberg captured the miracle of the moment for the press.  I really liked the statement delivered by New York's blind governor:  

"There is a heroic pilot, who saved himself and approximately 154 other passengers this afternoon.  We have had a miracle on 34th Street.  I believe we now have a miracle on the Hudson.

"This was potentially a very tragic incident.  Yet, somehow, this pilot, without any engines, was able to land the plane with what appears to be few, if any, serious injuries to any of the passengers.  The effort was assisted by ferries in the water, New York Waterway's ferries, the Circle Line, also the Coast Guard got involved.  The agencies of the City and the State also collaborated.  Our Department of Environmental Conservation will now help as part of the investigation.  The National Transportation Safety Board will be here shortly to conduct a full investigation of the plane and the runway.  

"I think for all the times we have had to appear at these press conferences in rather dismal circumstances, today, we realize how blessed this city is, and how blessed all of us are, particularly the survivors and their families.  In simplicity, this is really a potential tragedy that may become one of the most spectacular days in the history of New York City's agencies, their coordination and the greatness of the people that worked to help the passenger, who will return home to their families."

In the interviews with the survivors over the past few days, one theme has been consistent from male and female alike:

• "The pilot was amazing."
• "He did an incredible job, and he deserves an incredible reward."
• "My 2-year-old daughter has a father and my wife has a husband still because of this pilot."
• "When I see the pilot, I want to give him the biggest hug."
• "I owe my life to him."

Miracles can make us think differently about life and death and dependency.

I want to draw an analogy here, but I'm not sure I'd do the analogy justice.  So, instead, I just encourage you to think deeply and creatively about this miracle on the Hudson.