Man, oh man. The Southwest crash had us all gripping the edge of our seats on Wednesday….
Explosion…a lost engine…someone died..how could this happen? We fly all the time…
What is the biggest fear for some was the reality today for Flight 1380. But what could have been a major tragedy and a loss of many lives was minimized by the heroic and concentrated efforts of Captain Tammie Jo Shults who safely guided the plane to the ground. To top it off, Tammie was one of the first female US Navy Fighter Pilots.
Her stellar military training and service allowed her to calmly control the plane to land as quickly as possible while communicating with ground control about the status of the situation:
“We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit. Could you have medical meet us there on the runway, as well? We’ve got injured passengers.”
Then when asked if the plane was on fire, she answers calmly with news that would have made even the strongest of us lose it all together,
“No, it’s not on fire, but part of it’s missing. They said there’s a hole, and — uh — someone went out.”
*cue the hysterics*
But Captain Tammie landed the plan safely in Philadelphia – further proving her strength and courage that was already evident as she fought for gender equality during her time in the Navy to become of the first female fighter pilots.
We mourn the the loss of Jennifer Riordan of New Mexico, who was killed during the explosion. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family.
src: NBC News