Fly by Wire

Heroics take a backseat to analysis in this account of the January 2009 Hudson River ditching by an airliner disabled by a collision with birds. Without diminishing the flying feat of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, Langewiesche accentuates the attributes of the plane he flew, the Airbus A320.

The first fly-by-wire passenger airliner, so called because the plane’s control surfaces move by electronic command, not by direct mechanical or hydraulic linkages, the A320 also had a stall-proof design feature that Langewiesche says contributed to the successful outcome of the accident.

To explain these technological matters, which the adulation bestowed on Sullenberger perhaps obscured, Langewiesche took a field trip to France to interview the brains behind the fly-by-wire innovation. Amid his interview with Bernard Ziegler, Langewiesche declaims on several airliner accidents—one involving a loss of engine power similar to Sullenberger’s flight—that illustrate the author’s theme: pilots’ attitudes toward, and aptitude with, the computerized cockpit.

Ziegler’s engineering philosophy, which is to make commercial flying idiot-proof, is contrasted with pilots’ attitudes, since they tend to resent technology that trumps their expertise. Langewiesche synthesizes everything into a breathtaking narrative of the now-famous landing in the Hudson. In contrast with Sullenberger’s memoir, Highest Duty (2009), this work’s discernment of underlying issues contributes depth to the feel-good story --Gilbert Taylor