Today, as I walked in the door coming back from class, I turned on the TV to see what was on. To my surprise, I immediately saw what looked like an airplane slowly sinking in the water. I quickly turned up the volume and sat down, only to watch and listen about the commercial airline that "safe crash landed" in the Hudson River. I was frightened as I listened about the details of what had happened, although I was very thankful there were no deaths being reported.

The airplane that had to crash took off from Laguardia. Later on, as I listened to details, I learned that Laguardia was confident that the take-off of that aircraft was successful, and that the supposed culprit to the problems were...was I hearing this correctly...BIRDS?

I had several thoughts that came in the following moments.
First, I was immediately thrown into this sense of fear. Fear for myself, fear for my family, fear for friends. I have never been afraid of flying, even after 9/11. My family even flew ON Sept. 11th, just last year, to California for a wedding. This, however, shocked and rattled me, as I am planning to fly into and out of Laguardia come this April. If one or two birds can cause that much damage and harm to an airplane, then what COULD happen?

Second, I thought "How in the world does a bird get sucked up into an engine and actually cause problems, and in this case, severe problems in the first place? " There are literally thousands of aircrafts over the world that take off every day. How has this problem not happened before? Don't the air traffic controllers realize that birds fly across the world every single day?

Third, it made me think of how safe flying is now, in today's economy. I hear every day of Delta and Northwest having to make hundreds, even thousands, of layoffs. Who, exactly, is being laid off, and how is this affecting the maintenance and care of the runways and the airplanes? I have yet to look into this, and I suspect it will not be an easy task. Yet I feel the need for people all over the world to know just how safe flying is at this crucial point in our economy.

These were the things that have flooded my mind ever since I sat down about five hours ago and first discovered this event. Hopefully we'll receive some answers soon on exactly how the air traffic controllers, pilots, and flight companies around the world will change their standards to keep us safe.

One last note: Major "props" to the pilots, flight attendants, and people on board that flight for following exact procedures, resulting in a very positive outcome in a very negative situation!