Rock It like Sully: A Proven CRM Tool Taken from the Miracle on the Hudson

Rotor Safety Challenge (RSC)
Tracks: Safety; Operations
Instructor: Randy Mains

In this session, we’ll show a video of a presentation given to new Southwest Airline pilots during a case study of Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s famous 2009 US Airways flight over the Hudson River, into which he ditched the plane after a bird strike. The video explains the step-by-step decisions Sully made throughout the short flight using a mental took. A discussion will follow describing how helicopter pilots and aircrews can use the same tool, which was so successful in bringing down an unacceptable accident rate at US Airways that other airlines are now adopting it.

The presenter will introduce other materials to aid in sound aeronautical decision-making, including a “Make Better Decisions Card,” the ”9 Hazardous Attitudes to Decision-Making,” and a short video titled “The Wrong Stuff,” which details how the presenter nearly lost his life and endangered the lives of a flight nurse and on-board doctor on one of his first HAA missions, in 1979, on a night flight from Hermann Hospital out of Houston, Texas.

Instructor Bio

Randy Mains is an award-winning aviation journalist, keynote speaker, helicopter magazine columnist, and author of eight aviation books, including two that address helicopter safety. Randy’s career began as a 21-year-old helicopter pilot flying troops in Vietnam, where he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, 27 Air Medals, and the Bronze Star Medal. Randy has also been a senior instructor pilot for Bell Helicopter International in Iran; set up the University of California San Diego Life Flight program; and flew offshore with Abu Dhabi Aviation as a trainer and flight examiner.