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A couple of aircraft comments:

I suspect that Brian flew an A340, not an A320, to South America.

The A340 is a four engine plane while the A320 is a twin engine aircraft; the A320 competes with Boeing 737.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus#Civilian_products for more info.
Here's more on the A340:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=264560975#Civilian_products
and the A320
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=264609319

Here's a seating chart for the US Air A320s:
http://www.seatguru.com/airlines/US_Airways/US_Airways_Airbus_A320.php

Finally, let's not forget that Mayor Bloomberg is himself a pilot and has experienced a couple of ``equipment malfunctions'' while airborne.

Oh and here's the passenger video for A320 over wing exits:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCFzEg-t_Bk

I heard that a flock of Canada geese brought down the plane.
They are so pesky!
I've been looking for an excuse to hate on them...

#22, Caroline
I'm not saying Mr. Fatty is fit.
I'm saying he may have more muscle mass, and thereby more leverage.
There is a difference.
I always think it's rational to move parents with their children first. Gender regardless.

Women and children first? Imagine the following scenario: Pilot instructs all the children and only the children to leave the plane. Alone. Without supervision.

Hijinks enuse as smaller children start to scream and cry, or cluster in the aisles, waiting to be given instructions by an adult who is used to dealing with children. Teenagers start to pout, demanding to know why they are being singled out, demanding to know why they can't just go hang out with their friends, instead of being the objects of an unjust authority figure.

Granted it's a bit outdated, but at least to me, and to be honest or blunt, because I've met quite a few young women who couldn't be trusted to cope with children (that being the flip side to a great many positive developments for women in the last fifty years) but we're talking a practice that dates to the development of passenger travel, more 200 hundred years ago, right? Maybe when men needed to be reminded not to beat their way through crowds of panicked people who didn't know what the hell was going on nor were they trained to respond? Did anyone think that maybe it's a policy meant to put the people who might have had the least instruction in what to do out of the way more than anything? It's a thought.

Maybe it's about time we did one major thing for the society: we stopped being really stupid about history and the rules that developed over time.

And now that I have alienated some if not all readers (LOL), those jobs? Yes, we know, Bloomie. Jobs will be destroyed. Jobs will be created. But somehow I suspect that the created jobs will not go to the people whose jobs were destroyed.

Interesting - Hours after Mayor Bloomberg described the "State of the City" as shaken, but not broken --- U.S. Air flight 1549 was "shaken but not broken" - at least the body of the plane if not the engines.

@eva--The arm wrestling of course is a joke. As would be putting up a fuss of any kind in an emergency (embarrassing that it's often women, like the one who needed her purse, who do so).

Thanks for pointing out fit people come in all shapes--lots of people fit this description. Anyway, the point stands in both cases that people shouldn't make assumptions. Get the kids out, anyone else who needs help, those who are panicking, very frightened or confused. Women before men doesn't make sense and it's as insulting as any other categorization.

Everyone should do what you can without getting in the way, but no hero points for deciding other people can't, please. This is the problem I see, in W and C first, and elsewhere. That boat captain might have been evacuated, poor helpless thing, if she hadn't been the captain.

Maybe it's like giving up a seat on the subway, but a bit more extreme? Like some people need it and don't get offered and others get offered and don't need it. Um, another little joke.

#14, Caroline,
I hear you with the training background, but at the same time, I have to point out that there are inherent limits to that.
The fat guy with the heart condition may still bear more non-endurance related upper body muscle mass than you do, so in an emergency situation, say, when a heavy, obstructive piece of metal needs to be pushed out of the way, he might be better able to do that.
On the other hand, if you were pushing the metal out of the way together, instead of arm wrestling each other as you suggested, you'd both get out earlier. (BTW, I suspect he'd beat you at arm wrestling EVEN IF you're a swimmer - swimming should not be a muscle mass building activity, especially if you're a distance swimmer, as you suggested.)
So don't knock the fat guy. You might need him someday.

From NY Bugdet Travel Examiner: "Brittany Catanzaro, a local ferry captain, was one of the first to arrive on scene. After departing from nearby Pier 70 to carry commuters between Manhattan and New Jersey, Catanzaro looked out and saw the plane floating in the water. After doing a double take, she quickly steered the ferry to the plane while her crew and some of her riders prepared life jackets and rafts."

I get misty-eyed and feel proud of NY when I read that.

USAirways: Congratulations to the pilot and the small crew for their professionalism and doing a great job - It just shows you that what makes America great is its people, not the corporations or executives who control our society.

Bloomberg State of the City: So Brian, are you saying that the tens of thousands of jobs to be created in the next 5 years include those from Willets Point? Is this like the 'thousands' of jobs that have been created with the Yankee and Mets stadiums? - Divide these job numbers by 10 and classify them as Temporary or seasonal and prefix them miminum wage. That's reality.

Of course the flight attendants for evacuating in 90 seconds! I suspect it would have taken that long to convince me to leave my purse on the plane in NY!!

And what about the flight attendants?

You made a joke at the top of your broadcast asking if asking if the pilot might be able to fix our financial system. Probably not, but if our current problems are indeed much to do with psychology, this event, and the way everyone came together in response to it, certainly provides a lift to the spirit. I can't get enough of the coverage.

@lila-- Ok, maybe women or people *with* children first.

Thank you, Brian Lehrer for asking the logical question, why *women* and children first? This is so insulting to adult females! And that much worse, this kind of sexism is something to be proud of? I get so irked just imagining that someone would try to evacuate me--extremely fit, capable--before some guy with a heart condition, 40 extra pounds, who doesn't have anything like my long distance swimming, running (etc) habits. Finally I decided, if I'd been on that plane, anyone who could beat me at arm wrestling or maybe a pull-up contest could put me in front of them in line. At least, we'd have something to do while waiting.

Brian - Women first because babies and toddlers can't evacuate on their own!!

As to the birds - Why not have planes emit a sound on takeoff that would deter birds? Obviously the engine sound doesn't do it but is there a sound in a certain frequency that birds can't stand the way there is with dogs?

New York City reinvents itself... so are we the Madonna of cities?

Brian, it was KOREAN airline in Gladwell's book, not Japan

Re: Women and children first. As a woman, I think we should be past this. Let the children (and their parents) and the disabled and/or elderly go first. But I can't complain about this rescue. From what I've heard, it went by the book and as perfectly as it could have. God bless Sully and Jeff Skiles!

FYI, Brian
That was Korean Airlines, not Japanese airlines, that turned around the high crash rate.

Sorry to correct Brian. But the pilots in the Outliers book were Korean, not Japanese.

Love your show!

Malcolm Gladwell was talking about Korean Pilots, not Japanese ones in Outliers.

Women and children, first - It should be 'children and women, first'. The women are to take care of the children.

Lets give the pilot a cabinet post!

OK It is unusual. But there is other news going on. All news channels have gone over this for hours!
Plus the Today show did 2 fu hours.
Plane Ditches: 60 seonds.
Press coverage - Unending.
Come on, Brian. please move on to Obama? Gaza? Even the cold weather?

That pilot is MORE than amazing! Talk about focus!

As a person that travels frequently between Atlanta-Hartsfield and NY Laguardia, I am more than appreciative to know their are men like him in the air.

More than amazing, God Bless this guy!

BH-That water rescue -- was it the result of a superbly coordinated NYC-Homeland Security strategy, designed to help stranded New Yorkers, finally coming together after totally blowing in during the 2003 blackouts? Or was it just dumb luck?

Huh, maybe "change" is really coming this year, I mean we had a plane land in the hudson yesterday and brian lehrer wasn't even on vacation!