Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.
The SIP Review
Feb 2009
It's On My Heart

I am amazed by what I saw this last month on TV
newspaper
We live in Windsor, Colorado, and I fly out of Denver International Airport on a regular basis.  On a recent Saturday night, we had a Continental flight take a sudden dip on take-off, and crash into a berm just off the runway.  It broke in half, and then burst into flames. 

We saw the burned out body a few days later, it was incredible that no one lost their life.  Some were hurt, a couple in intensive care, but not one life was lost.  107 passengers and 5 crew members, all got out just fine.  That was the first airline accident at the new airport in the 13 years it has been in service. So if we have to have one, this was a good one to have.  

Then we were shocked by another plane wreck in New York a few weeks later.  This one was unique.  The pilot, Chesley Sullenberger, landed that bird on the Hudson river.  Yup, right in the river.  Most of us are not familiar with water landings, they are pretty rare.  Even more rare is one that you are able to get out of alive.  A few years ago, a jet crashed (it ran out of fuel during a hijacking) about 200 yards off the shore in the Indian Ocean.  It came in hot, the engines caught the water, tore off one wing, started the plane cart wheeling, it just disintegrated.  When we look at the video (caught by a tourist on the beach), it is fast.  One wing just sort of touches the water, and it almost explodes.  Then sinks just as fast as it broke apart.  127 out of 172 died in that accident. So we were thrilled when Sully (his nickname, all pilots have nicknames) brought this one in on the water in one piece, and it didn't even sink!  Wow.  All 150 passengers and 5 crew got out alive and well, no one even seriously injured. 

The end result was outstanding, due to several factors. 

First Sully is a pilot with thousands of hours, a real pro.  He is also an experienced glider pilot.  That fact became really important when he was making the turn just after take-off from La Guardia and his plane was hit by a double bird strike.  Which means birds took out both engines at once.  So he is at 3000 feet, roughly, with no power.  Time is 3:27, one minute after take-off.  He then has a few seconds to make the decision that probably saved a bunch of lives.  He sees where he is and takes the crippled bird over the Hudson river.  If you are familiar with New York, there is a lot more real estate than river in that area.  Not only that, he has to fly over the George Washington bridge, which is 600 feet high.  He starts the turn to follow the river at 1600 feet and 3:29, two minutes later.  At 3:30 he clears the bridge and the plane drops from 1300 feet to 400 feet.  He tells all passengers to brace for a rough impact.  3:31 he hits the water.  Now, he has to do this just perfect.  I spoke with an experienced pilot last week, here's what I learned.  If he had come in too fast, the plane could have shattered when it hit the water, which was approximately 36 degrees that day.  Many would not have made it.  Come in too slow, the engine drag would pull the plane to one side, or pull off a wing, and we would have had a cart-wheel.  Not good.

No, what he did was hit just right, at about 125 MPH.  it may have torn off the engines, one is still missing as of this article, but the wings stayed on and the plane actually floated.  I now understand there is a float switch on the Airbus 320, flip it and it seals up parts on the bottom, so you have a chance to stay afloat longer.  One of the people watching from the river said if the pilot had been over 20 yards either way, it would have been the end.  He had a very narrow aisle to land on.  Sully says, "it was one of my better landings!"  A real understatement.  In less than two minutes, harbor boats pulled up alongside to help rescue the passengers.  They were all lined up on the wing, only a couple were in the water trying to swim to shore.  In a matter of minutes, all were safe and secure.  The rescue was hampered by the fact the plane was still floating and drifting with the current.  So the boats had to be careful not to drift away, or into the plane to cause more damage. 

My point, and I do have one, is this. 

One reporter was asking an airline executive what he attributed the fact that no one lost their life in the accident.  Was it just pure luck, or did all the "endless drills" have something to do with it.  Some people just are clueless.  I am confident that the drills that we all sit through before take-off had a huge part to play in saving lives in both accidents.  The flight attendants all knew exactly what to do, where to direct people to go, even who to help (elderly and children).  Sully had an idea what to do, although he had never landed on water before.  Every pilot has practiced that with simulators, few have been through it live.  Sully was not your average pilot, he has a consulting business on the side, Safety Reliability Methods, appropriate name for his business. 

The passengers did not panic, they went to the exits just as they should.  Rafts were deployed, most just stood on the wing as the boats came over to pick them up.  Some never even got their feet wet.  They let the women and children go first, it was not a gang rush to the boats.  Lest I forget, the boats that came to rescue the passengers played an important part in the drama as well.  The rescue boats came from all sides, even the World Yacht Cruise boat picked up 20 passengers.  They normally run tourists on sightseeing tours around the harbor.  They had all participated in rescue drills, most of the guys on the boats had not ever been involved in an airplane rescue on the Hudson.  In fact, in jet history, this was only the 4th time a pilot has put an airplane into the water on purpose.  Some have done that because it just happened, but rare to do it on purpose.  

The way I see it, a large amount of the credit goes to...TRAINING.  Yes, that subject is very dear to my heart and pocketbook.  Training and perfect execution allowed an unexpected event to turn out very well.  The people all knew their roles and did them as they were trained. 
target So my question to you is:
Are your people trained? 


Does the office staff know how to handle an emergency?  I remember years ago at Donley Service Center one of the office staff was talking to a customer who was having trouble getting out a complete sentence.  That person had the presence of mind to get 911 on the line, and stayed with the customer till help arrived.  Many would not have moved that fast, and in fact, some people would have hung up thinking it was a prank.  Do your technicians know how to handle the difficult situation, the unexpected, the things that happen when we are least expecting them?  Do you have a complete set of scripts for the office, where they know what to say at all times?  How about the sales team, have they had regular training in people skills, as well as the engineering side of our business?  In my humble opinion, training is not a check the box type of thing.  Been there, done that.  It needs to be looked at each year, even the best ball players still go to batting practice. 

By the way, you do have an employee handbook, don't you?  If not, then this is the year to get that together as well.  It can serve as a starting point for the training program you are going to put into place this year as well.

Oh, one more thing.  Sully walked the sinking cabin of that plane twice before he got off.  He was the last person to lift his foot off of flight 1549 that day.  He could run for President and would get lots of votes today. 

Thanks for listening (OK, reading), we'll talk later...        
Sales Improvement Professionals Inc.
JIM HINSHAW
Ph: (602) 369-8097
[email protected]
Ebway Development Inc.
Jonathan Hinshaw
Ph: (970) 310-0993
[email protected]
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