Law Office of Christopher M. Manganello

Friday, April 30, 2010

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Friday, April 02, 2010

Yin and Yang

One of the most depressing things to me is when I witness people in power abusing their power or position. I suppose I shouldn't find it so sad, since it was one of the motivating factors that caused me to want to become an attorney. I get a real high from exposing and destroying abuses of the public trust.

So it is with some sadness that I relay the following: yesterday, I was in Municipal Court for a traffic offense. I was representing one of my favorite clients: me. A month ago, I had the unfortunate occurrence of (allegedly) failing to obey a certain traffic law.

Now, one thing you need to know is that when a defendant goes to this particular court, he needs to get in a line and wait to speak to someone who is called a "liaison officer". This is really just a fancy term for "low man on the totem pole", and the officer they assign to this duty evidently must, by state statute, be obnoxious.

Another thing you need to know is that I was advised by the Prosecutor to ask the liaison officer to give me my ticket so that I could give it to the Prosecutor and have him deal with it directly.

So, as I approached the officer, I was not wondering IF he would say something annoying to me; instead I was wondering just exactly WHAT pithy comment he would have for me.

I was dressed in my lawyer costume, so the first words out of my mouth were going to be (what became apparent was a misguided attempt) to explain to him that, although I am an attorney, I am here for myself and I need you to do something that you normally don't do, which is give me the ticket so I can give it to the Prosecutor. Clearly this was not going to go well.

"Good Morning, Officer. I'm an attorney, but I'm actually here --"

"I don't care who you are, attorney, whatever, waddya want?"

[This is where I lowered myself to his level -- I am sorry but I could not help it]

"Ok, that's great, you're a cop, and I couldn't care less about that either, so let's start over. I'm here to get my ticket --"

"Oh yea, I am a cop, which means I have more power than you!" [He literally said that]

"Really? You think so? How many friends do you have that you can call Governor?" [I know, I know....but there was no resisting it. Sorry :(]

"Yeah, well, I can write you a ticket."

"Yes, and I make my living beating them."

[At this point it is clear I had trumped him]

"Ok, waddya need?"

The entire conversation lasted less then 30 seconds, but it was nonetheless 30 seconds on the taxpayers' dime that could have been saved if the officer had kept his introductory sarcastic comment to himself and just done his job professionally.

Normally this would be entirely unbloggable, but I felt the urge to include this because of something that happened this morning.

As I was packing my car up in the pre-dawn hours, I inadvertently left an interior light on. Walking out my front door one final time, I was surprised to see a police car blocking my driveway with an officer, flashlight in hand, walking around my car. I knew immediately that the interior light must have made him suspicious, apologized for taking his time, and thanked him for his efforts.

So there you have it: two polar opposites of policing in less than 24 hours. Yin and Yang, as they say.

Thank you Officer Yang: a letter to your Chief is already on it's way. As for Officer Yin: I'll see YOU in Court. Just please don't hold against me again that fact that I'm an attorney. After all, I just may be the guy that saves your ass one day.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Time Flies

Three years ago today, my wife and I were on our way to our 31 week antenatal appointment, with a full two months left until our twins' due date. Had a long To Do List that Thursday morning, but was looking forward to spending a few quality hours with my wife at the doctor's office and getting to see hi-res 3D ultrasound pictures of the little ones in her belly.

Little did I know when I left the house that morning that my To Do List would be out the window, and that by 6:30pm that evening I would not just get to see hi-res 3D images of the little ones, but I would get to see them face-to-face.

Happy 3rd Birthday Jacob and Joshua! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Pitchers and Catchers Report Today

Today's the day! Phillies pitchers and catchers officially report to Spring Training today in Clearwater, Florida, with their first workout tomorrow morning. Truth be told, however, may have been there for a while already, including Roy Halladay, who has been participating in a rigorous workout routine which will set the standard for our other pitchers.

These are among the key questions for our staff this year:

* Has Hamels developed an effective, reliable third pitch (curve, cutter or slider)?

* Can Lidge come back from a horrendous 2009 season and two off-season surgeries (knee and elbow) to regain something close to his 2008 form?

* Who will occupy the fifth starter's spot? Top contenders at this time are Kendrick and Moyer, but a few months in Spring Training can change that calculus.

* Will Happ be able to replicate his "almost" Rookie-of-the-Year 2009 form?

* Will there be other lefty relievers from our system to step up and make it to the show, so that Romero is not driven into the ground by mid-season?

With all 8 position players locked up (C-Ruiz, 1st-Howard, 2nd-Utley, 3rd-Polanco, SS-Rollins, LF-Ibanez, CF-Victorino, RF-Werth), it looks like all eyes will be focused on the pitchers this Spring Training.

Look for other Spring Training headlines as they develop, such as possible injuries and off-field items, including Skipper's stunning weight loss and Kendrick's fiance's Stephanie's run on "Survivor - Heroes and Villains".

Thursday, February 11, 2010

What's Your 10-20?

Today is "Truck Day" at CBP and, according to a friend, the Phillies' Spring Training truck left this morning, heading to its destination of Clearwater, Florida!

The truck is full of baseballs, bats, uniforms, pine tar, bubble gum, hats....all the necessaries.

A great harbinger of things to come!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Enjoy the Blizzard!

Monday, February 08, 2010

Sorry Charlie.

While driving to the Courthouse this morning, I came across an obviously lost dog running back and forth across Lambs Road. As I came upon the scraggly brown mutt, cars ahead of me were slowing in fruitless attempts to coax it into their car. Car doors open and shut, including mine, but the dog wasn't biting.

After hooking a left and running down a long driveway, I pulled in behind it, got out of my car, and waited to see if it would turn around. A car pulled up next to me, and the driver identified herself as the owner of "Charlie".

"Come 'ere, Charlie, com 'ere boy", I said, excitedly, trying to convince the dog to turn around. About 100 yards away, he stopped, turned his head...and turned around, running toward me at breakneck pace over the snowy, slushy gravel.

I lowered slightly, like a Dad about to catch his running son. Now, you need to know that, since I was on my way to Court, I was wearing a suit and tie. Two thoughts came to me simultaneously: one, that if the dog really did come to me, I was going to get a little dirty and wet. That would have been fine. Two, that if he tried to get past me, I would have to make a quick decision whether or not to tackle him.

As he closed within 10 feet, Charlie took a mean turn to the right and proceeded past me, just out of my reach. I could have dived for him, but chose not to. Off he went, into the middle of the street, dodging a car that didn't know what was going on. Charlie continued down the road, far down, until he found another long driveway, and turned into it. Charlie's owner had already hopped back into her car and was following, but this new driveway led to the woods, and Charlie was not slowing down.

I got back into my car and drove past the driveway, looking to see if Charlie had perhaps dodged off the beaten path and circled back around. I didn't see him. What I did see was Charlie's owner, 200 yards down at the end of this new driveway, slowly get out of her car, look around, and then walk reluctantly into the woods.

I waited a few minutes, looking, hoping....and then I left, having to get to court.

I don't know what happened to Charlie.

* * *

Changing out of my suit at the end of the day, I notice -- as I have for months now -- that my pants are way too baggy. So is the jacket. The suit that I bought at one of my highest weights is now a testament to what happens when you diet and exercise. It really looks kind of silly on me.

I also notice, for the first time, that there's a little tear by one of the front pockets, exposing the white inside.

I should've dived for Charlie.

Next time, old suit or not, I will.

Friday, February 05, 2010

Getting Ready for Spring Training

I like to say that as big as a Phillies fan as I am, I'm an even bigger fan of baseball. That's just how I feel about the sport, and is a huge statement as to how I feel about the game, given my intense love of all things Phillies. It emanates from my childhood, growing up around the sights and sounds of baseball. The crack of the bat, the smell of the freshly cut grass and leather glove, the beautiful lines created by a hit or pitched ball and the infield diamond. The symmetry of it; the excitement of it. Plus, back in the day, I was pretty good at it.

So perhaps you'll understand why I was somewhat disappointed with myself when I just couldn't bear to watch the final innings of last year's World Series Game 6. It was just too painful. In fact, other than catching a snippet from the news of Shane Victorino's weak groundout to clinch the WS for the Yankees, I still hadn't watched those final three outs, in the top of the 9th.

Until this morning.

Forget about pitchers and catchers --- MY spring training reporting date is 20 days away. I'm eager to get this season started, and I wanted to put a final endnote on last year's wild ride. So well before dawn today, I slid the WS DVD into my BlueRay, and finally accepted what occurred.

I know that if I had watched the final 3 outs live, I would not have had the perspective to truly notice what I realized this morning: we were THAT close.

Took the first Game AT Yankee stadium.

Lost the second game to take a split back to Philly. Although Milt Thompson will say that the Phils really, really wanted that Game 2, the fact remained, we now had home field advantage.

Lost the next two games in Philly to go down 3-1 and to relinquish home field advantage. But, refused to go quietly and stole one back after another monstrous game from Chase Utley. Momentum slowly began shifting back to the Phils as the Yankees realized they will not win this series 4-1, it will go to a Game 6. And I always said, whoever won Game 6 was going to win the Series. (which is obvious if the Yankees won it, but perhaps not quite as obvious if the Phils won it).

And so here we were for Game 6. Watching those final 3 outs, down 7-3, I realized that we were just inches or feet away from taking that one.

First up in the top of the 9th was Matt Stairs. Before this morning I thought he had struck out, because one of the clips that keeps airing is of Stairs taking one of his monstrous swings and missing. But what actually occured was a good at bad where, facing the best closer in baseball, he fouled some pitches off, including a monstrous jack to right which, while clearly foul by 50 feet, was home run distance. It was the kind of swing and launch we had gotten Stairs for in the first place. Unfortunately, he made the first out, but it was on a strong infield line drive. Considering the situation, the stage: impressive.

Next up was Carlos Ruiz, who had the plate discipline to work a walk against Rivera with pitches that were mere inches off the plate, if that. Ruiz's clutch playoff performance was continuing.

Third up was Rollins. This and the next at-bat are what really struck me. Remember, we're down only 7-3, and this Phillies team has come back from larger deficits multiple times. Plus we've proven that we can rise to the occasion and get hot when necessary. This was clearly the most necessary of times to do just that, with Ruiz on base in the 9th and one swing away from cutting our deficit to just 2 runs. Rollins jacked a moon shot to right which, while caught by Swisher, landed deep on the warning track just a few feet from the short porch. Close!

Last up was Victorino, whose at-bat, like Stairs', I had misconstrued throughout the long winter. After seeing highlight after highlight of this last World Series out, you would have thought that his weak grounder was all there was to that at-bat. But prior to that, Shane fouled off a number of pitches, even prompting Phils' Manager Charlie Manuel to mouth to his assistant, "Good at-bat". One of Shane's last foul balls was a liner into the right-field stands. Remember, this is against the best closer in baseball, at the most pressure-packed time.

Of course it was not meant to be for the Phils last year. But far from choking, we have the Yankees their money's worth. Giving the Yankees a great run, going to the World Series 2 years in a row, poised to do that and more this year: What an exciting time to be a baseball fan, a Phillies fan.

Thursday, February 04, 2010

May I have a moment to ReGroup?

We're having fun regrouping over here. Alex came home with his first two-digit subtraction paper on Monday night, and when I got home from work, Laura demanded, "Chris, you have to help him with this, he got it all wrong and I don't know how to explain it to him!"

I looked at it, and it did take me a little while to figure it out, but when I got it, BAM, it was almost fun (almost). When Alex first handed the paper to me, it had answers on it like 32 - 28 = 34. So I'm looking at Alex and, taking a step back for a moment, trying to just theoretically explain how it is that when you have 32 of something, and you take away 28 of it, how you can actually end up with 2 more than you started with. That's when he squints his eyes, cocks his head to the side, his hair stands on end (truly), and he says something that sounds like a combination of "What?" and "Huh?" I knew then that we were in for a big night.

So then I figure we better just go at this mechanically, and apply the regrouping, which is not what we called it when I was a kid (right?), but which I had to figure out. The first thing that threw me off was that in showing how he got to his answer, his work had a vertical line down the middle between the numbers. For some reason this really alarmed me.

But then I noticed that the only problems he seemed to need to "regroup" were the ones where the top, right digit (I know academic types call it the "1's") were lower than the bottom right digits. Ok, so regrouping has something to do with........That.

And then, suddenly, it hit me. I was transported back to my 2nd grade math class at Kindle School in Pitman. I'm at my desk, doing math (by myself! Calculator be damned!), my teacher Mrs. Morgan is looking particularly Teacherish and making teacher noises, and I'm putting slashes through numbers, taking away one's on top, putting one's in front of 3's, all sorts of cool stuff. Some kid's throwing a spitball at me too.

But the point is, I got it. So, for the rest of the evening, I tried to impart to Alex this grain of knowledge, this wisdom, this pearl from the language of the universe that is mathematics.

I'm not sure it's worked. Yet.

But, at least for now, rest assured, someone gets it.

I just hope I don't have to re-learn 3-digit subtraction. Texas Instruments, anyone???

A solution for 911 hangups.

Following the Pitman house fire yesterday, which killed a member of our Church and left her mother critically injured, thoughts naturally turn to what could have been done to prevent it. My first question was to my wife: Our smoke detectors are working, right?

But something else crossed my mind, culled from the different media reports. ABC News reported that the surviving victim was pulled out by the Pitman Fire Department. The Gloucester County times reported this morning that the Pitman Police Department was first on scene as a result of a 911 hangup call, and when they arrived they reported the fire and the Fire Department was then dispatched. While the Fire Department pulled the survivor out of the burning home, they were unable to rescue her daughter in time, who died from smoke inhalation.

Driving by the scene on my way to the office yesterday, I noticed Councilman Russ Johnson standing outside. Today's Gloucester County Times reports:

"Pitman's not used to tragedy like this," Johnson said. "I can't even tell you the last time we had a fire death. Our guys did everything they could." He pointed out that firefighters were on the scene in under five minutes of being dispatched No small feat at four in the morning as snow fell. "We're really fortunate in Pitman that we're absolutely blessed to have three fire companies with well over 80 volunteers that fight fires," Johnson said. "I don't think we let them know how much we appreciate what they do for us."

We can agree that the firefighters were there as quickly as possible. A 5 minute response time is appropriate for the Fire Department. But the fact is, emergency services (the Police) were there quicker and, evidently, couldn't do a heck of a lot because they lack the training and equipment to address a fire (at a minimum, all Police vehicles should be equipped with gas masks). So, at the end of the day, the call to 911 was not initially directed to who it needed to go to: the Fire Department.

Fires are different from heart attacks which are different from nuisance complaints. Yet, through our 911 system, all these calls are dispatched the same way when there is a 911 hangup. This exposes a significant flaw in the system: the same potentially neutered response to all 911 hangup calls.

What we need to do is develop a system where a 911 hangup for a fire is instantly routed to the fire department as well as the police. Immediately dispatching an ambulance would also be the protocol for emergency requests for a health issue: if someone's having a heart attack, the minutes that pass between the time the police respond to the 911 hangup and the arrival of an ambulance only dispatched after the police arrive could be the difference between life and death.

The solution is the creation of two new emergency numbers, one for fire, and one for ambulances. This would cover the gamut: police, fire and ambulance. This step, followed by a public information campaign similar to what we utilize to "advertise" 911 services, would go a long way to ensure that calls made to the respective emergency numbers result in the immediate dispatch of the specific service required.

This issue is narrow and will only arise when there is a 911 hangup, with the caller rendered unable to detail what exactly the problem is. But, to those who cannot speak, it could mean a lot: and we need to find ways to listen to them even more intently.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

J.D. Salinger (1919 - 2010)

J.D. Salinger, the reclusive creator of angst-ridden Holden Caulfield, has died at the age of 91.

Salinger had been seldom seen or heard in the last half of his life. He reportedly continued writing even after after his last book was published, but only wrote for himself. The unpublished creations are rumored to be locked away in a safe in Salinger's home.

The man was evidently quite strange. Friends reported that his reclusiveness was necessary in order for him to keep his sanity. He successfully sued to prevent the release of an unauthorized biography, but he could not stop the publication of books by an ex-lover and daughter which described his eccentric eating habits (he reportedly drank his own urine), his penchant to speak in tongues and his habit of writing in a cement bunker.

Most of us have read his most famous novel, A Catcher in the Rye. The books' protagonist, Holden Caulfield, scorns the adult world of corruption and struggles to hold on to the innocent world of youth. Holden is the symbolic "catcher" of people as they "fall from Grace" (youthful innocence) into the rye field (adulthood).

One of Catcher's most magical passages details Holden's witnessing of his sister reaching out for the brass ring on a carousel. As the metaphorical "world" spins round and round, Holden realizes he cannot stop his sister from reaching for the brass ring, even though he is afraid she may fall.

Although Salinger has just passed away, the reality is that, to his fans, he really left us a long, long time ago. Regardless, the character of Holden Caulfield and the universal themes in his most famous novel will resound for decades, if not longer.

Rest in peace, J.D. Salinger.

As an aside, I am willing to bet that the man's Last Will & Testament is fascinating.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Should we be using the term "Negro"?

Time Magazine finally picked up on the question many, including me, raised a few weeks ago with the US Census:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1955923,00.html?hpt=T2

Saturday, January 23, 2010

A's stands for "Amens"!

You're looking at a future Man of the Cloth.

Meet Grant Desme, a soon-to-be Catholic seminary student in Orange County, California. He's 23 years old, and has decided to join the Catholic priesthood after a lot of soul-searching, during which time God called him to abandon other Worldy things. Like his MVP Award for the Arizona Fall League, where he hit .288 and smacked 31 home runs in the Oakland A's minor league system.

This 8th-ranked prospect in the A's farm system is hanging up his spikes and calling it quits, forgoing the likelihood of millions of dollars, notoriety, and playing a game for a living.

"I'm doing well in baseball", Desme said. "But I had to get down to the bottom of things, to what was good in my life, what I wanted to do with my life. Baseball is a good thing, but that felt selfish of me when I felt that God was calling me more. It took awhile to trust that and open up to it and aim full steam toward Him... I love the game, but I'm going to aspire to higher things."

Now of course I'm a huge baseball fan. But I'm an even bigger fan of God. So, all you can really say, is....

Amen!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Moyer and Manganello team up for Haiti relief efforts

Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer, and his wife, Karen, have agreed to match up to $50,000 in donations made to their charity, The Moyer Foundation. Their organization specializes in helping children in distress -- historically assisting children who are grieving with individualized camps. You can visit MoyerFoundation.org for more information.

My son Alex, pictured here with Moyer in Clearwater, Florida during Spring Training in 2008, has also jointed the Haiti relief efforts by donating the $1.00 he recently received from the tooth fairy to the Gloucester County American Red Cross. Alex has learned that on February 5, 2010, he will be honored by the American Red Cross for making this donation during a building dedication ceremony the Red Cross is having in honor of a gentleman who donated $100,000 to the Red Cross in the name of his deceased wife.

You can team up with Alex and Jamie to contribute as well. Text "Haiti" to 90999 to donate $10 on your cell phone bill to the relief efforts, or make a larger donation directly to your local Red Cross.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

What Happened?

Anybody else shocked that someone named Scott Brown, who evidently was an obscure state legislator from Massachusetts, has come out of left field to undermine our chances of passing meaningful health care reform?

While we were sleeping, there was this little thing called a U.S. SENATE RACE which was necessary to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the liberal lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy. It seems as if this race must have been taken for granted by many of the higher-ups in the Democrat party, because it wasn't even on the national radar screen until the last few days before the election.

Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown holds up a copy of the Boston Herald as he celebrates his win

The unbelievable significance of this race between Brown and Martha Coakley is that, if the Republicans took the seat, the Dems would no longer have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Translation: If the R's win the seat, they can block any piece of legislation with the procedural move known as a filibuster. The R's did win, and now they look to exercise their minority right of filibuster to block health care reform. Notably, it is health care reform that just passed BOTH houses of Congress. However, because of a number of different amendments to the bills passed in each house, there will need to be another vote in the Senate. And this is where the filibuster may come in.

From this point on, you will see incredible pressure being placed on more mainstream Republicans to lean to the left and help get this through Congress. You will also see pressure on the D's to water down the bill.

It's really fascinating if you think about it: one race, two people, a few hundred thousand voters, turning health care reform on its head in the blink of an eye.

And that's exactly the way our Founders would have it.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Enjoy your MLK Day, and spend at least part of it improving someone else's life and contributing to the breaking down of social barriers.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Spring Training 2009 Video

Just testing video on my blog. This little snippet is from Spring Training 2009 in Clearwater, Florida. If it works I will try to post more to satisfy your winter baseball cravings.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Rush Limbaugh Remains on the Stupid List

Taking the lead from Pat Robertson, Rush Limbaugh is discouraging folks from providing assistance to Haiti, declaring, "We've already donated to Haiti. It's called the U.S. income tax."

We are now at the notorious "72-hour" mark -- the time experts claim that trapped survivors face imminent death from dehydration. More are still missing than have been found. News reports are showing us that the injured and homeless are lying right next to the dead and dying. Literally, pure hell on earth.

You have to ask yourself, why do we let people get away with acting so callously?

Thursday, January 14, 2010

It's the Haitian's Fault?

I've been feeling a little guilty recently about having not attended church in a while, but Pat Robertson's comment today makes me realize that my Sunday mornings may be better spent sleeping in.

According to Robertson: "Something happened a long time ago in Haiti. They got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said we will serve you if you'll get us free from the French."

So, according to Pat Robertson, the Haitians brought this disaster upon themselves. This is the wrath of God, I guess.

Can you believe that a man who purports to be of God would make such a callous, cruel and obviously insane comment at a time like this? There are still thousands of people trapped under rubble, struggling to stay alive. Not to mention all those families mourning or desperately searching for their loved ones. It probably doesn't help them to think that God did this as payback.

Robertson's comment is a huge disservice to organized religion, especially Christianity. Religious leaders across the world need to condemn his ignorant comment for what it is: the misguided babblings of a man whose time has come and gone.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Haiti

We're not quite 24 hours from the catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti, but would it be too much to ask for there to be a little more Facebook chatter on this? From my bunch of eclectic FB friends, only three have mentioned it, and one of them was me. For the record, you can send the text "Haiti" to 90999 and $10 will be added to your phone bill and donated to the Red Cross relief effort. Another worthy effort to contribute to is Doctors Without Borders, as another FB friend of mine noted.

The people of Haiti -- especially the millions that live in or near its capital, Port-au-Prince -- are in desperate need. Imagine your hometown destroyed, without a national government infrastructure to help build it back up. Hospitals leveled, no police protection. Famine and crime rampant. This is what the people of Haiti will be facing shortly. Not to mention thousands of dead on the street.

You would help if it was your family in need.

And, it is.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Nice piloting.

A friend of mine posted a cool video of the simulation of US Airways Flight 1549 that crashed in the Hudson. The link to the simulation is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tE_5eiYn0D0#t

It's syncronized with the flight data recorder so all plane movements - pitch, bank, yaw, as well as thrust and controller movements like the flaps -- are recorded in real time with the video. Internal cockpit conversation as well as Captain Sully's communications with New York Departure are also included.

What's really interesting to me are the three areas where things really could have gone wrong. Of course the bird strike was potentially catastrophic since two engines were lost, but one of the first main decisions the Pilot had to make was whether or not to try to take the plane back to LaGuardia. The plane was wheels up at 8:25am and the bird strikes occurred just two minutes later as the plane was still in its climb out at just 2,900 feet.

At this point you can see and hear that the pilot is trying to turn the plane around toward LaGuardia by banking it to the left. This is the first place where things really could have gone wrong, as a low and slow plane on a steep bank angle can stall. If that had occurred, the results would have been catastrophic. However, Capt. Sully kept the bank angle relatively low. This resulted in the plane not even coming close to being able to complete the turn back toward LaGuardia, but also resulted in what the Captain had noticed moments before the bird strike -- the beautiful Hudson River shimmering in the cockpit window. Sure enough, there was a vast expanse of river -- which the plane was essentially perpendicular to-- running left to right in front of it. Continuing toward the river and slowly banking left, with the plane still losing altitude, Captain Sully considered his remaining options. But, one major crisis -- a stall -- had been averted.

The next decision was whether or not to go for landing at nearby Teterboro airport in Northern New Jersey. At this point, however, the plane is still losing altitude or at best just barely holding at around 1,000 feet for a few seconds. Unless the vectors into Teterboro were provided immediately and it was less than a minute to touchdown, there was no way the plane would make it. Capt. Sully smartly decided to nix Teterboro and made the instantaneous decision to drop it in the Hudson. Smart move considering that was the only possible choice. Crisis number 2 resolved.

The last problem was the biggest: how to get the plane down in the Hudson without causing catastrophic damage to the body of the plane, which would invariably result in instant death or drowning for at least some passengers and crew. You'll notice that, as the plane continues its descent down into the Hudson, the Captain employs the "flaps". Those little pieces of machinery are attached to the backs of the wings and are used by pilots to allow a plane to fly slower without stalling, and to descend without increasing airspeed. The employment of the flaps at this time was absolutely critical as it permitted the plane to bleed off airspeed. If the plane had come down too fast (and pointing the plane's nose down toward the ground in order to land will increase airspeed because of the force of gravity), it almost certainly would have broken apart in the water. Another issue was keeping the planes' wings absolutely level. Even a small error with the yolk would have resulted in a wing being sheared off, a wing which was full of gasoline and which also could have resulted in a catastrophe. Captain Sully feathered the plane down slowly, slowly, and simply planted it as smooth as could be right in the Hudson. Last crisis averted.

Amazing piloting skills. Capt. Sully was cool and calm the entire time and managed the crisis before him to perfection. It is a testament to the training all pilots receive and makes me proud to be a pilot.

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