To tell you the truth, the way this pilot sees it, this is exactly what the pilot is expected to be able to do. In fact, it is quite a mundane emergency... apparently no complications like losing flight controls or avionics. I guarantee this pilot, and every other pilot, sees a dozen worse scenarios every year in his training. Bird strikes were a staple food for emergencies, and so were water landings.
Being a pilot is known as “hours, days and months of sheer boredom interspersed with a few seconds of stark, raving terror.” I wouldn’t be surprised if, to the pilot, the only time he was really crossing his fingers in this whole incident was when the water was coming up toward him, and he was saying, “Well, this is the one thing I haven’t really done before... I hope to God this works the way I’ve been trained!”...
Hero... I suppose so, but every time a pilot takes off with a passenger plane he is really prepared for many emergencies just like this one, and many much worse.
What an excellent and very interesting post in #428! Thank you for your insight, and for your service to our country in the Air Force.