Screaming Penguin

As I was headed out the door today I caught a glimpse of the Good Morning America segment "Miracle on the Hudson." Complete with it's own music, special font, and so on, the "MIRACLE" got big attention. What gets me about this kind of crap is how ridiculous it is to call this type of thing a miracle. I thought the miracle bar was a bit higher than that, but meh, maybe that's just me. Don't get me wrong, in this case it was a great ending and I am very glad it turned out well. The pilot and crew were exemplary, and it was a remarkable event - remarkable yes, but miracle no. This was science and a well trained crew; it was the principle of lift; it was emergency training; it was good smart people who dealt with it spectacularly. A miracle would have been if birds entered the engine and then just miraculously came out the other side untouched, no damage to bird or plane. A miracle would have been if the plane were carried softly to the runway and set down unharmed. A miracle would have been if the people floated in thin air to safety. You get the idea, something actually miraculous should have taken place to call it a miracle. An even more subtle miracle that wouldn't have made the news, and a seemingly easier one for an omniscient omnibenevolent being in charge of such acts, would have been to simply somehow signal the birds to get out of the area, fly around, below, above, etc - or to delay the flight for 10 minutes (and on and on and on with the easy ones).