Calm, Composed, and Heroic: How one pilot dealt with “hitting two birds with one plane”

On February 5, 2009, the F.A.A. released the audio and transcripts of the flight recorder from the U.S. Airways Flight 1549 that crashed landed in the Hudson River on January 15, 2009. The pilot, Chesley B. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, can be heard calmly talking with air traffic control while still piloting the unpowered plane to safety. Captain Sullenberger was clearly trying to stay calm, explain the situation to the air-traffic controller, and make sense of what was happening. As the incident unfolded, he had to make sense of new and conflicting information as it came in from the radio, the flight instruments, the crew he commanded, and so on. This act of heroism is also an example of how important it is to make sense of all the many things that were happening all at once, or what social science researchers call “sensemaking”.

Sensemaking in crisis situations is the idea that people collective try to understand their environment and through that process begin to realize the nature and seriousness of the situation. Captain Sullenberger made sense of the situation through talking with the air-traffic controller, interacting with his co-pilot, observing the instruments on the panel, looking out the cockpit window, and so on. All the many things going on in the environment would be mind numbing and paralyzing for most individuals and maybe to some pilots with less background experience.

Psychologist Karl Weick, best know for developing the concept of sensemaking, wrote, “Sensemaking in crisis conditions is made more difficult because action that is instrumental to understanding the crisis often intensifies the crisis.” On Flight 1549, when Captain Sullenberger recognized that the engines had lost thrust due to bird strikes, the crisis intensified because he became aware of the fact that the plane was without the necessary power to make its destination or even return to the airport. In other words, the action of simply noticing and finding meaning in the events that were occurring actually intensified the crisis. The nature of the crisis did not change, but the meaning of the crisis evolved as urgency of resolving the situation became more apparent.

When listening to Captain Sullenberger, one notices that he does not sound anxious, worried, concerned, or fearful. All those emotions are easily communicated through changes in our voice. We all know what someone sounds like when they are scared, worried, or fearful. New stations, newspapers, TV talk-show hosts, and bloggers alike are amazed at the calm and composed demeanor of Captain Sullenberger. This act of remaining emotionally flat on the surface may have actually assisted in keeping the crew calm and helping them focus more on the situation and less on the feelings that were likely to surface.

So, was Captain Sullenberger emotionless or was he simply managing them in that situation?

He (Captain Sullenberger) tells Katie Couric in a CBS "60 Minutes" interview it was "the worst sickening, pit-of-your-stomach, falling-through-the-floor feeling" he's ever had.

Perhaps instead of being emotionless, Captain Sullenberger managed his emotions for the purpose of managing others emotions. By his calm demeanor, he actually helped others (e.g. the crew, the passangers, etc.) also remain calm, alert, and composed in this crisis situation.