Bravo to Dougie and friends for being ahead of the curve on this and building on the competence of the crew. This is a rare case where an accident may help an airline’s public image.

Oh, and US Airways should be applauded. Take some responsibility, people, if you choose to do something like fly on an airplane, that’s your choice and nobody owes you compensation for things like counseling if an accident happens during your free-will choice to defy gravity.

I like the NTSB fine, no knock on them, and I’m sure they’ll come up with a couple of little ideas like changes in the breifing or making life seat cusions easier to get out.

But I think we need to get away from the idea that the NTSB can make changes that will “insure this never happens again” as some people say.

We had the crash of Comair 5191 out my way, and they came up with a few things about runway lighting and controller workload, but their main conclusion was that the pilots were jawboning instead of looking for the right runway.

So what’s the recommendation? Pay attention while taxiing. Train your pilots to pay attention while taxiing. But we already do that. So remind them again. Great. So what did we learn from that accident? No matter how well trained, pilots will sometimes randomly screw up. There’s nothing you can do to prevent it.

As for additional compensation, I imagine that there will be. The reason I like what they’ve already done is they did it very quickly. Paying out for the delayed return of baggage and the cost of the ticket is a concrete number that gives immediate relief to those who have to replace things stuck in their bags. Other things like medical bills and the like will take longer to sort out. So my guess is that there will be negotiations down the line for things that apply on an individual basis.

Greg Wesson – Well, my understanding is that the letter was sent with two checks and nothing else. If that’s the case, then it wouldn’t appear that they would have to waive any right to future claims by cashing the checks. I don’t think US Airways would be that stupid. If they pulled that stunt, there would have been a lot of angry people and we’d probably see it in the media quickly.

I’m not trying to praise them too much. In fact my earlier post asked for a little restraint. I’m just saying that what they’ve done so far has been done well in the public’s eye. That doesn’t mean that I won’t turn on them if they try something shady tomorrow.

I think if you said you were traumatized, they’d more than happily pay for counseling etc. The approach here is: This is the least we can do, let us know specifically what else you need.

I’m sure if you went to them and said you had more than $5k of items onboard they’d probably accommodate a reasonable request.

But, I’d be interested to see how this comes out and if they get sued. I think many instances of companies getting sued is because people feel wronged.

While it was an impressive landing, and certainly US Air does seem to be acting very well to the passengers at this point, I still think it is too early to praise them too much. My understanding is that airline accidents can rarely be attributed to a single cause, and that as the NTSB investigates, we may find that faults or mistakes with the airplane, airline or crew contributed to the accident.

While I’m all for tort reform and am not in support of ambulance chasers, shouldn’t there be additional compensation without having to sue for it? I think the refund and free transportation to final destination is a given, the $5,000 reasonable for lost effects, but what about compensation for the fact that they were in a traumatizing event… some people may be too afraid to fly again, may have nightmares, etc. If there were more serious injuries like decapitations or death, what compensation would they automatically give out?

I guess to counter my own argument, my AMEX Corporate card insurance details compensation at $200,000 max for death, $10,000 for loss of one hand at the wrist, $5,000 for two digits, etc or something like that, but nothing for psychological damage.