Going Down

Fascinating article about Sullenberger's ditch into the Hudson, as well as other crashes:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23533.

When I fly, I always hope that the guy on the stick knows what he's doing. I've read some stuff about the low pay rate to pilots on some regional airlines--something around $30 or $35k a year and that gets my attention. Anyway, I take comfort in that the vast majority of pilots have a great sense of professionalism. I tell myself that, anyway.

As the piece also points out, flying is no longer a pleasurable thing. I agree and avoid it if at all possible. When I do fly, I prefer Southwest simply because they tend to do better at getting you where you need to go when you need to get there and they do it with a mostly polite, customer oriented attitude. Contrast that with some of the bitter, angry, hostile, miserable wretches that occupy the aisles of the major carriers and their cohorts in their respective "service" capacities and I have concluded that there is a big difference. Maybe that's just me.

I took my first flight when I was about ten years old. The old man decided to splurge, so he booked us on a Texas Trans Airlines (TTA) flight that made a milk run from Houston to Laredo (I think we hit Corpus and Brownsville on the way down). Oh, the glamor.