the buzz log

Less than halfway through the first month of 2009, and America already has a new hero.

Jittery fears over a New York City airplane crash turned to widespread relief when the pilot managed to land a U.S. Airways airbus into the Hudson River on January 15. Yes, the water was cold (40 degrees on a 20-degree day), but the plane didn't immediately sink, no nearby boats were crushed, every single passenger emerged safely, and Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger III instantly got elevated to elite status on the Web.

The people monitoring the "plane crash," "airplane crash new york," "airplane crash in hudson river," and "us airways crash" online quickly turned to pore over the hero pilot's credentials. As searchers for "chesley sullenberger" found out, this was a guy made for worst-case scenarios: According to the Associated Press, Sullenberger flew F-4 fighter jets in '70s, investigated aircraft accidents, is president of a safety consulting firm, and studied the "psychology of keeping airline crews functioning even in the face of crisis."

Time magazine's two-minute bio also cited his position as a visiting scholar to the very severe-sounding University of California at Berkeley's Center for Catastrophic Risk Management. U.S. News & World Report highlighted the 57-year-old pilot's long career as "evidence that companies should hold on to their older and experienced workers."

Searches also rose for "fans of sully sullenberger," which are manifold on Facebook: So far, the captain can count about nine variations of "fans of" groups. That doesn't include the "Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger" Facebook page, which reaped nearly 20,000 fans in less than 48 hours. (A nation's gratitude does have its drawbacks: His family have had to duck the media hordes and sustain themselves on a diet of In-N-Out burgers.)

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are talking to Sullenberger and copilot Jeff Skiles on Friday, but a curious public has already started its own online inquiry into "snarge," which Fox News calls the remains of birds hit by planes (one widely reported theory behind the crash) and "ditch switch," which CBS News explains "seals the underbelly of the plane to make it more buoyant." (Interestingly, a "ditch switch" search on Yahoo! yields a link to a pilot forum topic, "The Time a Widebody Takes to Sink," with one poster pointing out, "The question, I would think, isn't how long it will float, it's how will the pilots manage to get the thing down intact ... not something I'd want to experience first hand.")

While normally such incidents prompt a look back at lessons from past accidents, the so-called 'Miracle on the Hudson' has shown how well the airline industry has learned from them this time. Given the recent Federal Aviation Administration whistleblower scandals about cozy relationships between inspectors and airlines, the timing for a hero is about right. And while media are always eager to bestow that title, aviation experts believe Sully deserves it (even if Mrs. Sullenberger thinks the designation is "a little weird"). Said one pilot and aviation consultant to AFP, "I would definitely call the guy a hero. To have no fatalities--that is remarkable."

Incidentally, just two days before the accident, NPR reported that fixing the FAA's problems figured high on the president-elect's priority list. If Barack Obama needs some recommendations for an airline safety czar, some people might just have a name to offer up.