Sully Sullenberger didn't leave it up to God whether his passengers were going to live or die. He spent a large percentage of his professional life taking time out to practice in simulation how to land a commercial jetliner without engines. When he decided that wasn't enough, he then went on to make a professional study, on his own time, of commercial aviation safety, so much so that telling other people what he learned from studying it turned into a second job for him. And (more goosebumps again) he decided, years ago?, that that wasn't enough margin for safety for him, so he went on to learn to become a certified glider pilot. Nor should you call it a "miracle" that US Airways flight 1549 had someone like Sully Sullenberger at the helm, because that's what commercial aviation is like.
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andrewducker
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Date: 2009-01-18 08:40 pm (UTC)-- Steve notes that "miracle" connotes to a happening beyond human control, and THAT is what Brad is objecting too. There was some luck over the Hudson that day, but the results of that landing were very much borne of human practice.
PS: I think the best lesson we can take from that crash is, "Chance favours the prepared mind;" that's something you don't get from calling it a miracle.