The public’s intuition that “fortuitous” circumstances contributed to all occupants surviving the January 2009 ditching of an Airbus A320 in the Hudson River has been seconded by the final accident report of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on US Airways Flight 1549.1 Now-famous images of people without life vests or life lines standing on the wings, however, contain a less obvious message about shared responsibility for safety aboard aircraft. Rather than dwell on the unusually favorable circumstances, the NTSB took the opportunity to redirect the attention of government, the airline industry and the traveling public to the critical survival factors they do control.
For example, noting that “only about 10 passengers [of 150] retrieved life vests themselves after impact and evacuated with them” and that only 77 retrieved flotation-type seat cushions, the survival factors sections of the report essentially said that crewmembers and passengers di…
