= new reply since forum marked as read
Good to hear they all made it. 
I have also developed fear of flying after 9-11 
When the pilot and passengers walk away from a landing it is considered a good landing. I agree.
A great landing is ... when you get to use the airplane again. Peace. 
Spent 4 years in a P-3 Orion sub hunter, all the landings were great ones!
This is from the local newspaper; The Big Bear Grizzly.
It wasn't scary for me, in fact we heard it, watched it, and pretty much figured it was simply someone flying low as if they had friends on the lake in a boat or something. I never imagined it would actually ditch. Later, I called up the community website (socalmountains.com) and in their chatbox were all kinds of alerts about it.
As for the passengers and pilot... the plane was flying slow and level, descending very slowly, and was in a slight nose-up attitude. I believe they call that a high AOA or angle of attack. Here's my guess: The pilot had to be completely in control and calm as it's fairly windy today up here at 7,000 feet and even planes that are operating properly are all over the place on their approach to the airport. I've read it's one of the more "interesting" places to land in Southern California. The approach was very smooth. Hopefully he or she was able to impart some of their own calmness to the passengers and by the time it went into the water had their trust and support and everyone was calm and understood what they needed to do as soon as the plane came to rest.
Kudos to YOU, Mr. or Ms. Pilot. A large amount of GA pilots would have panicked and simply caused their airplanes to fall from the sky.
The plane was out of the water two hours after the incident. Amazing.
