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Land the plane or jump ship, The tale of 2 Captains.
I've been a leader of men and occasionally women. I managed several restaurants, a furniture store and one Rent-a-Center. I've also been every line officer except deputy and chief in our volunteer department. But even with 30 plus years of experience I'm not a management expert and never will be. But when I look back I hope people will say I would land the plane.
What does that mean, "land the plane" or "jump ship". Couple of years ago Capt Sullenberger faced a serious crisis while flying in the NYC metro area. While faced with this emergency he callmly considered his options, made a choice and saved hundreds of lives. Not only those on the plane but people in the area if the plane crashed. He walked the aisles TWICE to check to make sure everyone was off the plane that could have sunk at any minute. No lives were lost.
Capt Schettino devaited from course, ran aground, told passenger it was an electrical issue and when the ship started sinking was one of the first off the ship. So far the death toll as not yet been fully tallied.
Tale of 2 Captains. But the thing is we can't say I would land the plane until your in the air and faced with that problem, especially sitting in the den on the computer. We in fire service have a bad habit of saying what we would have done, I think its worse then any other industry. But until your faced with a sinking ship, or house fire with heavy fire pushing out of EVERY window and citizens yelling someone is inside and your crew not packed up and...sorry I had a flashback to an alarm we responded to and faced those very issues. I could list more mistakes on that alarm then things I did right, besides not giving a report put not even going on location, not laying in (no hydrant and should have come in another way) to not requesting additional equipment until the rescue was made...oh yeah we saved the lady and her grandson.
I landed the plane on that one but I know I've jumped ship. Luckily no one was hurt in those cases...yeah more then one because I'm not perfect but I pray the level is swinging more to the good then bad.
I beleive the most important thing that helped Capt Sullenberger is that he and his crew were trained and prepared. Everything you do as a firefighter should prepared for the land the plane moment. If it doesn't then you need to talk to the Chief or training officer. Then the rest is up to you.
We don't know what tomorrow brings and what will be asked of us, especially as officers. But when the time comes you can land the plane or jump ship
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by John Crabbe on
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Leadership is also one aspect of things, the other aspect is training. A good leader is really as good as the crew and vice versa and it is imperative of both the organization (dept/company) and the individual crews are kept trained.
Now I don't know specifics in either case, but there are enough stories out there of knowing what to do when properly trained as well as the chaos without. Flight crews perhaps have more involved training and may have to undergo routine certs etc. (I don't know for sure). On the cruise ship, there are plenty of rumors or stories of hiring on people at low wages, training may not be as important as running the ship and hours and working conditions may come into question.
What we may see is the ensuing chaos and stories from passengers of the ship where they were stories of crewmembers not knowing what to do etc. We heard of issues onboard the other Carnival vessel several years ago that was on fire of crewmembers not knowing what to do. Whereas you hear of "successful" crash or emergency landings, where the crewmembers are assisting passengers and there is an emergency action plan in place.......Although most planes don't have the passenger load as a cruiseship.
Point being is when you train and prepare, you are going to (tend to at least) function despite the chaos. In the military and Navy specifically, there is a fire drill daily and a General Quarters drill weekly underway. When there is an emergency crews react, because it is part of the organization (Navy) as well as the leadership and crew of the ship to be ready. The same thing can be said for any fire company out there.....we can't train on every "what if" scenario, nor anticipate it, but if you train enough on the fundamentals and basics, you should react appropriately when an emergency happens. It is imperative for the leadership to ensure the crews are ready to the best of their capability as it is for the crew to be ready and trained as well.
Bottom line is such leadership examples here started before either emergency occurred.
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Permalink Reply by Just Plain Craig Moyer on
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Great point about having a great crew. When I managed a Wendys I had the greatest crew. We all got along, helped each and genuiely liked each other. People would comment about how much fun we would have during lunch rush. It bothered my district manager because I wouldn't say much during shift. Its because they were all trained and knew what to do.
For a long time my fire company was like that. Being volunteers you had to "check" who was on the engine and figure out what they could do. Recently we got to the point were it didn't matter who was riding because they could do the job.
On issue in the volunteer service is pass through knowledge. Why train someone to take my place or chiefs running from one alarm to the next never giving other officers a chance at leadership. They don't realize that the more your people know the easier your job is as a chief, let alone fast food manager...LOL
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