首页 > 范文大全 > 正文

赫德森河上的“不速之客”

开篇:润墨网以专业的文秘视角,为您筛选了一篇赫德森河上的“不速之客”范文,如需获取更多写作素材,在线客服老师一对一协助。欢迎您的阅读与分享!

Do you remember when a plane in distress after taking off from an airport in New York City landed safely in the Hudson River? Well, the captain who accomplished this amazing feat is Captain Chesley“Sully” Sullenberger, and on behalf of Fortune Character, I caught up with him to talk about how he accomplished this, and why he is working with the JeanRichard watch company.

“It’s the way I have lived my life for the 57 years before that incident that made the difference in the aggregate," he says, when I ask him how he was able to stay cool under pressure and bring the plane down safely in the waters of the Hudson. “My entire life was preparation for the ultimate challenge of that day. There wasn’t time to learn what I needed to know in those 200 seconds of flight. All my years went into those split seconds which we never trained for.

"I have been fortunate to achieve two pinnacles in aviation first as a fighter pilot and then as an airline captain for 30 years," he continued. "I lived my life’s dream. It was important to me to be the most complete, skillful, knowledgeable pilot I could be. The success, if you can call it that, was a product of constant learning and constant striving for excellence."

Sullenberger has been a “watch guy”since he began flying, and has always worn a watch as a pilot. “I use my watch as a backup for the instruments in the cockpit,” he explains. “I flew as a fighter pilot at the end of the Cold War, I flew the F4 Phantom 2 fighter, and it had a mechanical winding clock in the instrument panel. Under the G forces, the second hand on the mechanical clock would sometimes lose time. Much of what we were doing was navigation based on timing, and we were flying in formation at very low levels, as low as 100 feet, at speeds of 600 knots, so timing was very important, to be at a particular place at a particular time, so we had to ‘deconflict’ our flight paths. I would sometimes use my watch as a backup to the aircraft clock to make sure we stayed on our timeline.

“In any airplane, unless you are in a military airplane capable of in-flight refueling, you have a finite amount of time and fuel before you have to return to earth, so the whole concept of time is vitally important,” he continues.“I have always liked the beauty of mechanical instruments. There is something about having a welldesigned and finely-crafted timepiece. There is also a lot of elegance to the mechanical solutions to the problem of accuracy. I love craftsmanship in many things, including airplanes and watches. We only have so much time, so I am fascinated by watches and watchmaking.”

S i n c e h e w a s c o n t a c t e d b y JeanRichard, Sullenberger has become even more enamored of mechanical timepieces. ”Next month, I will have a chance to learn more when I visit the manufacture,” he says. “At some point, we will talk about doing a watch together. For the time being, I am wearing a JeanRichard Terrascope with a black dial.”

Even though Sullenberger has since retired from being an active captain, he stays busy with public speaking, consulting to business on safety, being an aviation safety expert on American TV News and writing he is working on book three right now.

“There’s never enough time in the day,” Sullenberger says. “I really feel an obligation to continue to be a good public face of these issues and to treat this story with respect. I’m really trying to continue to use this so it leaves everything I care about better than when I started.”

As a result of his extraordinary experience, and his subsequent fame, Sullenberger has been determined to do something positive for his beloved aviation industry, and safety in general. “I feel an obligation to do something meaningful,” he admitted.“One of the biggest surprises is that unlike other news stories, this story did not fade away. Because of where and when it happened, people were looking for good news and they were touched and inspired by this event. Once I figured that out, I felt an obligation to do good, not to do so which would have been a missed opportunity. I have to do what I can to improve aviation safety, the status of the airline piloting profession and I also have branched out and begun to apply all the things I’ve learned in other domains like medicine. I want to have more long term good come of this.”

你是否听说过有架飞机从纽约起飞后紧急迫降在赫德森河(Hudson River)上的故事?这一事件中的草根英雄――机长Chesley Sullenberger在情急之下并未给飞机任何灾难性俯冲的机会,而是以出色的技术将它平稳落在了河面上,机内155名乘客全部安全脱险。编者专门拜访了这位现已退役的机长,让他谈谈与JeanRichard(尚维沙)腕表的合作经历和自己的职业感想。

事故发生在纽约市,时间为2009年1月15日。他是如何保持镇定,携整机人员渡过危险的?“当时我57岁,我的人生在这之前波澜不惊,但我一直都在为这类不可预料的挑战做准备。紧急迫降前后仅200秒的过程,但之前从未学习过如何应对这样惊心动魄的200秒。整个职业生涯中的经验与意志,就在这关键的时刻发挥了作用。”

“我的飞行生涯共有两件事最能引以为豪。一是战斗机飞行员的经历,另外就是当了整整三十年的民航机长。我一直在追逐自己的梦想,它不断激励我完善自己的技术、知识和各个方面。如果我真的拥有成功,那么它得归功于我的持之以恒。”

自Sullenberger从事飞行工作起,手表就与他结下不解之缘,成了他每次飞行任务中不可或缺的伙伴。“我把手表当作驾驶舱备用仪器。冷战时期我是战斗机飞行员,当时我驾驶着F4幻影战斗机,操作台上的计时器使用机械发条。因飞机高速移动时会受到G力影响,计时器秒针有时就会偏慢。而时间对巡航是至关重要的,我们往往都在100英尺的低空以600节速度列队飞行,必须要在确定的时间里到达确定的飞行位置,这样才不会破坏队列的阵形。为了保证精确,手表可以满足我的不时之需。”

“只有军用飞机可以在飞行过程中加油,而民用飞机上加载的燃料是有限的,你必须在限定的时间里返回地面,因此时间成了我的挚友。我一直迷恋机械的魅力,比如那些设计优异、工艺精巧的时计。以机械的匠心来追求极致精确,颇具雅士之风。对我来说,手表就和飞机一样复杂精确,我喜爱这类工艺。”自打尚维沙腕表找上了Sullenberger,他对机械腕表的痴迷又升温了不少。“下周我会拜访制造商,这是个开阔眼界的好机会。我们还会谈谈如何一起开发一款腕表,目前我戴着尚维沙的Terrascope(地球探索者)。”

尽管退役,这位曾经的英雄还时时活跃在各个领域。公众演讲、企业安全顾问、美国电视新闻航空安全专家,还有写作(已有两本著作问世,目前在写个人的第三本书)。由于经历显赫,Sullenberger决定为他所热爱的航空工业多释放一些正能量,而这些饶有意义的事情主要涉及安全话题。“我觉得这是一项义不容辞的使命。我自己都感到吃惊,2009年那件事迹至今还未从公众的记忆中淡去,也许是因为人们惯于被那些关键事件中的好消息所感动鼓舞吧。这一点也触动了我自己,我应该借助这一影响力多做些有意义的事情。于是我尽可能地为航空安全出谋划策,并想在诸如医药这类新的领域取得一定建树。我希望这些努力会有长远的益处。”