(From Flikr user imjustsayin via Huffington Post)

Given where that plane was heading right before the pilot changed course and headed for the river, this could have been so much amazingly worse than it was. Not just the people on the plane, but the people on the ground that would have been hit as well. Looks vaguely like he first was going to attempt to return to La Guardia, then decided he wasn’t going to make it, so headed for the river instead. That could just be the way this guy interpolated the data points though. You could easily draw a curve through those points that headed directly to the river. Regardless though, point is that if the pilot hadn’t been on the ball, there could have been quite a few ground deaths as well as those on the plane. The fact that this happened with no injuries more severe than broken bones is amazing.

I’ve always thought the tradition of having people in the gallery that you point out during the State of the Union address is stupid and should be retired, but if Obama continues that condition, I think you can be pretty sure that pilot is going to be one of the ones up there.