Flying in the face of disaster

Remember Chesley Sullenberger?

He was the pilot who safely landed a passenger plane on the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 people on board. And as Professor Frank Bond told delegates at the Future Work Centre’s launch event, No More Blind Faith – Just the Facts, he did it by making good use of all the available evidence. In other words, he took an evidence-based approach.

In his 42-year career, Sullenberger had researched catastrophic risk management, written accident reports, completed formal and informal training and, of course, flown a lot of planes. So when US Airways Flight 1539 struck a flock of geese, damaging the engines, he was able to call upon a wealth of scientific, professional and experiential evidence – as well as his and his organisation’s values – to help him make a decision.

Reflecting on the experience later, Sullenberger used a banking analogy to describe how he built up this evidence. ‘One way of looking at this might be that for 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits in this bank of experience, education and training,’ he said. ‘And on January 15, the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.’