No, it was not a miracle

I would have been falling down drunk last night, utterly obliviated, if I took a sip of beer for every mention of the word "miracle" last night on the evening news.

Look. There was no MIRACLE involved here. I'm really tired of hearing that word bandied about as though we're all witness to some supernatural event. What saved the lives of all the passengers was:

1) the plane hadn't achieved any more altitude or speed when disaster struck. If it had climbed a few thousand feet higher before it encountered the birds, it would have hit the water a lot harder, or (more likely) the ground;
2) the pilot was experienced, well-trained, competent and calm in the face of sudden dire circumstances (which makes you wonder about our president-elect and how he's going to handle sudden adversity when the time comes);
3) none of the passengers or crew did anything panicky or stupid.

It's ok to be grateful and happy everybody lived, but can we please put the credit where it belongs: half dumb luck and the other half on the level heads of all involved, especially the pilot. If those people needed a miracle to survive, the birds who got sucked into the plane's engine would have seen it coming in the first place and, I don't know, maybe stayed out of its way.