Emergency landings

THE ATLANTIC'S James Fallows, a pilot himself, has written a great post comparing two recent airplane incidents that ended in emergency landings. The first episode, United 497's April 4 landing at New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International airport, represents what Mr Fallows calls the "best" of "professionalism and demeanor." The other "emergency," small-plane pilot Jason Maloney's landing on the beach near New York's John F. Kennedy airport, represents the "worst" of the same, Mr Fallows says. Here's how the New York Times described Mr Maloney's landing, which I'm sorry to say we missed:

A 24-year-old pilot with an airsick passenger who landed his single-engine Piper Warrior on Rockaway Beach in Queens on Monday night could not be talked out of it, no matter how hard an air-traffic controller tried.

Mr Maloney, it seems, had seen such landings on television. "What’s the big deal? It happens all the time in Alaska," he reportedly asked a detective at the scene. "Welcome to New York," the detective replied, according to the Times. (If Law & Order hadn't been cancelled, there'd already be an episode in the works. Maybe they can figure out some way to put it on SVU.) No one has explained why Mr Maloney thought an airsick passenger was a good enough reason to attempt a dangerous beach landing. "This is why you carry little bags on the plane," Mr Fallows wrote.

Mr Fallows says authorities should "throw the book at" Mr Maloney, but admits that the landing definitely took "some skill." Still, the United 497 flight crew was leaps and bounds more impressive. They had 106 passengers and crew on board when instruments started failing. When smoke started to fill the cockpit, they had to circle back to the airport and land their fuel-heavy plane on a short runway. Nobody was hurt. (Mr Maloney reportedly spent much of a day in the hospital.) If you admire calm and professionalism, you should really listen to the in-flight audio, which is available via the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Mr Maloney may have gotten more national attention than the United flight crew, but he could still pay the price for his bravado. The Queens district attorney's office has reportedly launched a criminal investigation of the incident. Mr Maloney could be charged with reckless endangerment, a source told the New York Post. The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating, and local politicians have called for Mr Maloney to be stripped of his pilot's license. That seems appropriate to me. What do you think?