Role Model: Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger

On 15 Jan 2009, a US Airline Airbus 320 took off from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport heading for Charlotte, North Carolina.

Less than three minutes into the flight, the Airbus flew right into a flock of migrating Canada geese.  The birds slammed into the engines, instantly knocking out both power plants.

Suddenly, the airliner with 155 people on board was flying low without power over New York City skyscrapers. 

The pilot Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger felt the pressure instantly in his body: “It was the most sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach, like falling through the floor.”

Capt Sully quickly sized up the situation and took charge. His first thought was empowering – he focused his thoughts on his intention to save lives: “I had to be certain we could make it.”

Weighing his options quickly, Capt Sully decided that his best chance was to ditch the engineless plane in the Hudson River. Capt Sully recalled: “I quickly determined that we were at too low an altitude, at too low air speed, and therefore we didn’t have enough energy to return to LaGuardia.”

Capt Sully visualized his desired outcome and broadcasted his intention: “We’re gonna be in the Hudson”.

In a calm voice which reflected Capt Sully’s mastery over his emotions he announced over the intercom: “Brace for impact because we are going down”.

In the state of being Centered, Open, Aware, Connected, and Holding it all together (COACH state) Capt Sully masterfully lined the engineless Airbus with the Hubson River, and executed a perfect ditching that kept the airplane intact, saving the lives of everyone on board.

The “Miracle on the Hudson” was possible only because Capt Scully was at his peak performance – playing in the Zone at the moment of truth.

It was critical that the airplane was perfectly level when it touched water. Had any one of its wing tips hit the water first, the aircraft would cartwheel, and it would all end disastrously. "I needed the wings exactly level at touchdown. I needed to make the rate of descent survivable. I needed to touch down at a nose-up attitude. And I needed to touch down just above our minimum flying speed. And all those needed to occur simultaneously,"

As it turned out, Capt Scully laid the stricken Airbus down so gently that one passenger described the bump he felt “wasn’t a whole lot more then a rear end (car collision)…”

Capt Sully acted with conviction throughout the entire episode, carrying out his duties to the last detail. After laying the Airbus on the water, Capt Sully coolly walked the aisle of the airplane twice to make sure that all the passengers were off the plane before he left the aircraft. 

Role Model: Major Heather Penney

In the bright and sunny morning of September 11, 2001, Major Heather Penney was suddenly ordered to scramble her F-16 fighter jet. Her orders were to shoot down a hijacked Boeing 757 airliner heading for Washington D.C., if it refused orders to land. Her mission mate was Colonel Marc Sassesville.

Unfortunately, the F-16 fighters were not armed with missiles. In those innocent days before 9/11, the possibility of having to shoot down hostile aircraft was considered so remote that air force fighters on alert were not armed with missiles.

But that did not stop the F-16 pilots, who quickly came up with a plan.

They decided that Major Penney would ram the 757’s tail with her F-16. “I’ll ram the cockpit” said Colonel Sassville. And, that was that.

“Let’s go!” Col Sasville barked.

The two pilots chose thoughts that energized them as they scrambled their jets into the air, and did not let the fact that they had no missiles derail their mission. No ifs, no buts.

Major Penney did considered whether she should eject from her F-16 fighter just before impact but she quickly dismissed the idea. “I mean you only got one chance, you don't want to eject and have missed, right?” she reasoned.

Major Penney visualized the outcome she wanted. “My concern was how do I minimize collateral damage on the ground” she said with calm professional assuredness. By shearing the tail off the 757, Major Penney would be sending the airliner vertically down. It would have a smaller impact area, thus hurting fewer people on the ground.

Major Penney said that she was so engrossed in her mission that she “had no time for emotions.” What she had done was she had mastery over her emotions, and had chosen the emotion of fierceness to accomplish her mission. 

Major Penney did not even let the possibility that her own beloved father - whom she is very close to - who was then a United Airlines pilot flying the Flight 93 route might be in the cockpit distract her. Major Penney said “I couldn’t think about it. I had a job to do.”

Major Penney (and also Colonel Sassville) was obviously Centered, Open, Aware, Connected, and Holding it all together (in COACH state) in the midst of an extremely stressful and chaotic situation. The two pilots, the ground crews, the air controllers were all connected, working as a well oiled team. The pilots' minds were clear, receptive, and alert, allowing them to hatch the plan on-the-fly as they dashed to their waiting F-16 fighters on the tarmac.

Major Penney, acted with conviction as her F-16 screamed down the runway which she believed would be her last mission. She said she felt the adrenaline, and her only thought was on accomplishing her mission that day. There was also a strange serenity - that of one who was totally composed. “I genuinely believed that was going to the last time I took off,” she said.

Epilogue: In the end, Major Penney needn’t have to make the ultimate sacrifice that she was so prepared for. The passengers on board the ill fated Flight 93, took matters into their own hands, overpowering the hijackers and thwarting their plot by crashing the 757 in an open field in Pennsylvania.