The world today is obsessed with the idea that every problem can be and should be solved efficiently and accurately. Mother nature, on the other hand, believes in simple solutions. We explore, what an investor can learn from the most successful ditching in aviation history.
Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger had 208 seconds to land his plane from the time both the engines caught fire.
On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 took off from LaGuardia Airport, New York with 155 people on board including five cabin crew members. Four minutes after the take-off, passengers heard very loud bangs and saw flames from the engines, followed by silence and an odor of jet fuel. Apparently, the plane was struck by a large flock of Canadian geese. A Canadian goose can be as large as ten kgs, big enough to cause serious damage to the airplane engine. On this occasion, the impact killed both the engines.
Realizing that both engines had shut down, Sully assumed manual control of the plane while his co-pilot, Skiles, worked the checklist for engine restart. Twenty seconds after the bird strike, a voice crackled on the radio at the New York Air Traffic Control (ATC).
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