Fly by Wire
Fly By Wire, by William Langewiesche, analyses the events and history behind the successful ditching of Flight 1549 into the River Hudson on 15th January 2009. This remarkable incident, in which none of the 155 soles on board were killed, inspired many in an industry that was at the time struggling with recession, forced lay-offs and poor industrial relations. The Captain of the aircraft became a quietly spoken hero who has since retired from flying and now concentrates on giving aviation safety presentations.
The books front cover has the striking and symbolic image of the Airbus A320 floating nose high in the freezing river, with passengers crowded onto the wings. This has to be one of the most recognisable pictures of a commercial aircraft incident. This combined with the sub-title, The Geese, The Glide, The ‘Miracle’ on the Hudson, draws the reader in instantly. A seemingly unprecedented event, those in the industry wanted to know more about the technical details surrounding it while others wanted to know the ‘inside story’.
Langewiesche focuses the book on the technical aspects of the ditching, while discussing the history of the fly-by-wire system on the Airbus aircraft and Captain Sullenberger himself. Attempting to include non-technical aspects of the event only limits the success of the book making it jump from topic to topic too frequently.
Interesting points are raised but only briefly discussed, and there is little evidence of looking at different approaches to a particular outcome. An entire chapter explores what the Canadian Geese were doing over that part of New York at that time, though this is clearly very relevant to the unfolding events I’m not sure it warrants a full 20 pages, given that the book is only 193.
The author has experience as a commercial pilot but throughout the book it is hard to tell whether he has respect for the way in which Sullenberger and Skiles, the First Officer, dealt with the emergency or dislikes the gratitude they have received. He describes the Hudson as an obvious landing spot given the situation and, though he admits Sullenberger is a “superb” pilot, he spends a significant proportion of the book recognising the affect fly-by-wire had in providing a “magic carpet for them to fly”.
Conversely, Fly by Wire’s decision to use other relevant aircraft incidents to highlight points relating to Crew Resource Management (CRM), to name just one. These are interwoven successfully demonstrating Langewiesche’s knowledge of the industry, giving the reader a good background and in parts an enthralling and informative read
Little research has been done in the area of ditching since the 1960’s and there are few successful accounts on record. Some mistakes were evidently made on 15th January 2009 and it is important that in the aviation industry we can openly talk about these, not to apportion blame but instead learn. Although Fly by Wire is non-judgemental in its assessment of the errors, it was disappointing that Langewiesche chose to ignore the potential to use this book as a vehicle to identify and learn from the mistakes, and instead created a generalist account.
Overall I did find the read enjoyable and informative, although the often-disagreeable treatment of events left me with an overall feeling of dissatisfaction. Instead of answering questions posed Langewiesche’s writing left me with more. These could be considered interesting research points but the inability to answer his own questions (which he highlights on the back cover) can only be seen as a failing on his part. I would recommend this book to anyone with a general interest of the events of that day but if you are looking for a more analytical account of the most renowned ditching incident this may not leave you any better informed.
