Is it just me, or does anyone else think this Hero Pilot stuff is spinning out of control? I dunno, it hits me as wrong. Mawkish, lowest common denominator, on-display-for-your-beer-guzzling-delectation wrong.
I’m surprised Sullenberger’s going along with all this. It’s like Real Men Don’t Eat Quiche: real pilots don’t strut around like peacocks when they do good . . . on the contrary, they say “I was just doing my job” and then run, not walk, from the media. Now I know he has said exactly those words . . . but he sure as hell isn’t trying very hard to avoid the media. Well, to be fair, US Airways is probably forcing him into it.
Update (6 Feb 09): Now I hear one of the network morning shows is going to devote an entire broadcast to Hero Pilot (it’ll be up against a competitor network’s all-octuplet-mother-all-the-time broadcast).
Look, fools . . . the man is competent, he did good, and he’s deserving of praise, but this is getting ridiculous. The higher the pedestal you put Hero Pilot on, the farther he (and we) will fall once we find out he’s only human. Stop this Oprahesque hype now. You wanna worship a hero? Try Mikhail Gorbachev. Or Ghandi. Or Helen Keller.
Paul,
I agree with you. The problem is the media. How long has it been since they actually dealt with a real hero and not a strutting pro athlete, an idiot actor, or an egotistical politician? Sullenberger cannot avoid them no matter how hard he tries, and the more he tries to low key it, the more frenzied they become.