Legal Commentary

flight 1549: fatalities — a big goose egg!

By David A. Giacalone

US Airways Flight 1549:  It’s very cold here in Upstate New York, but I’m still taking off my hat to praise the pilot (Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, of Danville, Calif.), crew and passengers of US Airways Flight 1549, and all of the rescue workers (fire department, police department and Port authority police).  Together, they were able to bring today’s plane crash into the Hudson River to a remarkably happy ending — with all aboard surviving (most not even getting wet) and no apparent serious injuries. “All 155 survive plane crash in NYC’s Hudson River” (AP/Charlotte Observer, Jan. 15, 2009); “Jet Ditches in Hudson; All Are Said Safe” (New York Times, Jan. 15, 2009) [Click for "latest updates on the Hudson jet rescue" from the NYT City Room weblog.]

NY Gov. David Paterson got it right, when he said:

?This is a potential tragedy that may have become one of the most magnificent days in the history of New York City agencies.?

Apparently, the plan encountered a flock of geese. We now know what a “double bird” means to airline and safety workers — A bird or several birds entering engines on both sides of the plane.  According to a side article in the Charlotte Observer, there were at least 6 bird-plane collisions in 2008 — geese, hawks, owls and more.

– we’re left with yet another perspective on flocks of geese –

Master Issa wrote hundreds of haiku about geese, in the 19th Century.  Here’s a sample (find many more here)

another year
they’re back for the massacre…
rice field geese

wind is blowing
and so the geese
are honking

settling back
to dead silence…
rice field geese

finalizing the divorce
leaving my house behind…
departing geese

the departing goose
drops an enormous
crap

after many nights
telling me bedtime stories
the geese have left

straight out of a full moon
painting…
the geese depart

evening wind–
the geese turn around
honking

after the geese depart
back to normal…
Sumida River

?….. by Kobayashi Issa, translated by David G. Lanoue

honking at my window ?
geese above
cabbie below

… by dagosan

Full post as published by f/k/a . . . on January 15, 2009 (boomark / email).