Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
One enormous knowledge withdrawal
A plane took off from New York City, both engines went out, and Sullenberger had to commit to an emergency landing. A younger pilot with faster reaction times and a sharper memory might have turned around and landed at an airport, which would have made more sense. Sullenberger decided to put the plane down on the water.
He knew he could pull it off because he used to fly gliders. The physics and the weight management are different, but the principles carry over.
Years of building knowledge worked like a series of investments, and the landing on the Hudson was one enormous withdrawal. It meant taking what he had learned and reshaping it for a single emergency.
Why does glider experience help after engine failure?
A powered airplane that loses its engines does not fall straight down; it becomes a glider with a long, shallow descent. Glider pilots spend their flying hours managing height and speed, since altitude is the only energy they have to spend. That training teaches them to judge how far they can travel and where they can reach. A large airliner can glide roughly 15 to 20 feet forward for every foot of altitude it loses.
Why is landing on water so dangerous?
Water behaves like a hard surface at airplane speeds. If a wingtip or the nose digs in first, the aircraft can cartwheel or break apart. Pilots aim to touch down with wings level and the nose slightly raised, so the rear fuselage meets the water first and the plane slides rather than plunges. Airbus airliners have a ditching button that closes valves below the waterline to slow the flow of water into the cabin.
How do experts decide so fast in emergencies?
Psychologist Gary Klein studied fire commanders, and found that they rarely compared options side by side. Instead they recognized the situation as similar to one they had seen, and mentally ran the first workable plan. Klein called this the recognition-primed decision model. The more varied experience a person has stored, the more situations they can match, which is why unrelated skills like gliding can matter.
More from Andrew Huberman
