Essay talk:Chesley Sullenberger is not a Hero

"He's not. He's just a guy who did his job. Landing the plane. That's what he's supposed to do. Land the plane. Ideally on land, but hey, these things happen. Sometimes it's harder than others. This was one of those times." Ditto with the flight attendants.  Phantom Hoover  10:22, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * To be fair he did stay on the plane helping people get out after the crash & was among the last out of the body of the plane. [[Image:Toast s.png|25px]] (Crumpets) and butter'' 10:24, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * (EC)@ Phantom...Who probably make about a third of what the guy who lands the plane makes, if that, yet have an equally--if not greater responsibility--for the safety of the passengers. And who are working a fairly gender-specific occupation (while I've seen a fair amount of male flight attendants, though never half, I've never been in a plane flown by "Cindy" before. It's always "Bob" or "Jim"...) @ Toast. I know. I'm just taking the piss out of the need to construct "heroes" all the time--and how unfair that process is, given that we need ONE hero, preferably male....TheoryOfPractice 10:28, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * Fine, but if you're going to say that Sullenberger isn't a hero because he was just doing his job, then you must apply the same logic to the flight attendants. If you were just making the case for the heroing of the attendants, why did you need to say that he wasn't?  Phantom Hoover  10:33, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * re: last off: "Mayor Bloomberg said that the pilot told him that the captain then "walked the plane twice after everybody else was off and tried to verify that there was nobody else onboard"." (BBC) [[Image:Toast s.png|25px]] (Crumpets) and butter'' 10:34, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * (EC)I was about to echo Phantom Hoover, if you don't think the pilot is a hero for doing his job, neither are the flight attendents. However, I do think they're all heros.  Yes, he was doing his job, but he did save lives.  How many of us can say the same, that our job saved lives.  Firefighters, paramedics, police officers, their jobs save lives, and I consider them heros, even if they're "just doing they're job".  Anyone is free to disagree, but I think we need heros, and Sulley fulfilled that role when he landed the plan IN A FREAKIN RIVER!Z3ro 10:35, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * (EC)Yeah, or I could just be snarky in order to make my point that we have this weird need to create/fixate on heroes and that in that process some fundamental social imbalances are sort of reinforced and concealed, which is actually the point of this snarkticle--I actually think the pilot is pretty cool. And that he would be the first one to say he's no hero.TheoryOfPractice 10:36, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * Yeah, but everyone says that they're no hero - it's practically the law.  Phantom Hoover  10:37, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * I'm a hero.Z3ro 10:38, 17 January 2009 (EST)
 * You're certainly my hero. TheoryOfPractice 10:39, 17 January 2009 (EST)

It's not like he had a choice, he needed to save those people's lives in order to save his own. However paramedics, firefighters and other emergency responders get no publicity for actually going out of their way to save lives many of whom risking their own peril to do so. &mdash; Unsigned, by: Brucelee6790 / talk / contribs 11:46, 26 February 2015


 * It's their job as well as the pilots and flight attendants...so didn't everyone do their job as they are supposed to in an emergency situation in a way that went perfectly? Just with the idea that you cannot be a hero if you are doing what's in your job description.  -EmeraldCityWanderer (talk) 15:19, 26 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Heroism comes with a component of "above and beyond" the normal routine of just doing one's job. Grace under pressure, and all that. Landing an airplane into a favorably smooth wind on dry pavement is nothing special, given appropriate training and practice. Being nobody special, I've done it many hundreds of times. Some times it was more exciting than others, but nobody cares any more, nor should they. Suddenly choosing an arrival point within reach, clear of obstacles, and seeing that all souls on board get out safely while they still can, is an entirely different class of action. Aye, he was "just" doing what he was paid to do, but well outside the everyday envelope. Alec Sanderson (talk) 15:47, 26 February 2015 (UTC)