Wow, that's cool when reading about the celebrations. Nice community then and surely some 'last days' to remember.

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CoolP, what a silly looking airship. A train wreck in slow motion.

My aviator's pride took a severe hit now, Low.  :-/
But let me tell you that I doubt that you ever grilled a snag in the 'jetwash' of your engines the way I did there.  :D

More seriously.

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there would always be the "Oh Sh#% period." (Actual term we used in the industry) Depending on the alertness of the crew this period could last 4 to 5 seconds.

Absolutely agreed. When reading some transcripts of incidents and accidents, sometimes the time period got stretched though and that's, in my eyes, the tricky part of the whole game.
Since you can't 'checklist' everything, crews may well end up as 'spectators of their own fate' because that special moment plus the memory items for a dual engine failure after takeoff don't allow any choice then.
In that close time span, Mr. Sully and his crew truly showed remarkable skills for example and I quote him (in the tenor) when speaking about 'a never before experienced level of stress'.
I for one have to applaud twice there. First, for being able to handle the situation itself and second, for being that honest about the emotions involved, which isn't that common even in today's modern society with some strange (often media driven) hero templates.

As said before, those moments really show why the crews get the big money while, of course, some other accidents may also give a different view from time to time. Humans in the cockpit!  :)