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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Hero Pilot Brings It In

Hero Pilot Brings It In

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Yesterday a Southwest Airlines flight from LaGuardia to Dallas lost an engine. That’s lost an engine, as in parts of it flew out. The pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, brought the plane to an emergency landing at Philadelphia. The voice recording between her and air traffic control shows a total professional.

Shults was a Navy fighter pilot with a number of firsts in her record. She retired as a lieutenant commander. More at the Washington Post.

She lives in the San Antonio area. I hope they give her a parade.

 

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Reader Interactions

80Comments

  1. 1.

    Jager

    Mrs J is a retired flight attendant, training instructor, etc. When a pilot gets promoted to Captain, they can choose their crew for their first flight. A woman pilot gave her a call, the flight was from Charlotte to Kansas City, the gear wouldn’t go down. , it can be lowered manually, the crew pitched in and got the gear down on the MD80. It took for ever hand cranking it down. After they landed and got to the hotel, the new Captain told her crew, “Thanks you guys, but I’ll be god damned if I was going to do a belly landing on my first f’ing flight in the left seat, drinks are on me.”

  2. 2.

    JanieM

    Thanks for featuring this, Cheryl.

    If I had a time machine, I would go back and throw out half the curriculum from kindergarten onward so that I could get 1) training/practice in staying cool under pressure (many kinds of pressure); and 2) remedial studies for people (like me) who are, as an acquaintance once aptly phrased it, learning disabled about politics.

  3. 3.

    Cermet

    An impressive bit of flying. However, a parade is a bit over-the-top. Many commercial planes have been landed with a dead engine – a broken engine like that (though), would be a more difficult issue.

  4. 4.

    Aleta

    She oughta get a movie too!

    In addition to describing her piloting, the article mentions this:

    Shults was among the first female fighter pilots for the U.S. Navy, according to her alma mater, MidAmerica Nazarene University, from which she graduated in 1983. Cindy Foster, who went to college with her, told the Kansas City Star that Shults was also among the first women to fly an F/A-18 Hornet for the Navy.

    Shults ….recalled attending a lecture on aviation during her senior year of high school, in 1979. A retired colonel started the class by asking Shults, the only girl in attendance, “if I was lost.”

    “I mustered up the courage to assure him I was not and that I was interested in flying,” she wrote. “He allowed me to stay but assured me there were no professional women pilots.” When she met a woman in college who had received her Air Force wings, she wrote, “I set to work trying to break into the club.”

    But Shults, whose maiden name is Bonnell, wrote that the Air Force “wasn’t interested” in talking to her. The Navy let her apply for aviation officer candidate school, “but there did not seem to be a demand for women pilots.”

    “Finally,” she wrote, a year after taking the Navy aviation exam, she found a recruiter who would process her application. After aviation officer candidate school in Pensacola, Fla., she was assigned to a training squadron at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Tex., as an instructor pilot teaching student aviators how to fly the Navy T-2 trainer. She later left to fly the A-7 Corsair in Lemoore, Calif.

    Because of the combat exclusion law, Tammie Jo Shults was prohibited from flying in a combat squadron. While her husband was able to join a squadron, her choices were limited, involving providing electronic warfare training to Navy ships and aircraft. She later became one of the first women to fly what was then the Navy’s newest fighter, the F/A-18 Hornet but, again, in a support role. “Women were new to the Hornet community, and already there were signs of growing pains.”

    She served in the Navy for 10 years, reaching the rank of Navy lieutenant commander. She left the Navy in 1993.

  5. 5.

    Cheryl Rofer

    @Cermet: A flying piece of shrapnel from the engine knocked out a window, and a passenger was nearly sucked out. So the plane was depressurized as well. The damage probably added difficulty to handling a plane with one dead engine.

    @JanieM: On Monday, I had a conversation with a friend in which I mentioned that when you’re learning to fly, you have to practice stalls. He found that frightening. But it’s only by practicing scary stuff that you learn to deal with it. I’m sure that as a Navy pilot, Shults both practiced and came through all sorts of scenarios. But you only know how you’ll respond when you’re there, and she did it right.

  6. 6.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    Phew thank the FSM she wasn’t a hysterical woman having her period huh guys? Oh wait…. /s/

  7. 7.

    Jager

    I have no idea why I’m in moderation, but let’s try again…

    Mrs J is a retired flight attendant, training instructor, etc. When a pilot gets promoted to Captain, they can choose their crew for their first flight. A woman pilot gave her a call, the flight was from Charlotte to Kansas City, the gear wouldn’t go down. , it can be lowered manually, the crew pitched in and got the gear down on the MD80. It took for ever hand cranking it down. After they landed and got to the hotel, the new Captain told her crew, “Thanks you guys, but I’ll be god damned if I was going to do a belly landing on my first f’ing flight in the left seat, drinks are on me.”

  9. 9.

    Immanentize

    It is always important to remember that one of the reasons that this didn’t turn into a complete tragedy is also because the pilots and the flight attendants are union workers — well trained, protected by collective agreements, paid reasonably well, well rested and ready for emergencies by agreements and laws passed by the union, and kept current on safety procedures and safety responses.

    I’m a union man, all the way!

  12. 12.

    Yutsano

    @Cheryl Rofer: She was a Navy pilot. She learned all the techniques for landing and taking off on very short runways (aircraft carriers) including everything that can go wrong there. It doesn’t surprise me that she got the lane down in one piece not to mention Boeing has been working on making their birds more hardy when things go wrong.

    I do feel for the woman’s family. She had two young ones at home.

  15. 15.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Zoomies were not interested.

    The Swabbies gave her the chance.

    Swabbies 1, Zoomies 0.

  16. 16.

    RP

    Not to be too curmudgeonly, she’s not a hero. She just did her job.
    She, most likely, will tell us that when the TV interviews air.

  20. 20.

    ThresherK

    A TV report said this was the first fatality on a US commercial flight via mechanical failure since 2009 (hope I remembered that correctly).

    That’s 8 1/2 years. I know that airline near-misses get a lot of press and they’re clickbait, but if American trains / infra were fixed so as to be so sturdy, or American drivers (and their cars) improved in safety like this, it’d be a miracle.

    Kudos to her to for the harm reduction.

  22. 22.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @hitchhiker:

    Infuriating reminder of the world women face. “Are you lost?”

    Shults is almost exactly my age. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that question, or its equivalent, I could retire by now (instead of having to wait until I’m at least 70 because I’ve always made 85 cents for every dollar my male peers have).

  23. 23.

    r€nato

    @ThresherK: also the first fatality ever on a SW flight, I believe.

    Several years back a SW flight leaving from PHX had the top of the fuselage open up at 34K feet, exposing a five foot hole in the cabin to the sky. The plane emergency landed in Yuma. Amazingly only a couple minor injuries.

    Yet another reason you should never, ever refer to flight attendants as “waitresses in the sky”. These people can and will save your life.

  24. 24.

    FlyingToaster

    As an airline brat (my dad was a TWA mechanic/inspector, mom a flight attendant), I see these stories as “thank FSM that we still have an operational FAA”.

    Kudos and gratitude to Captain Shults.

  25. 25.

    Jager

    Airline training for the entire crew is all about safety, Mrs J knew most of the crew on Sully’s landing on the river, remember the middle aged flight attendant standing in freezing water up to her waist shepherding the passengers out of the cabin? On the other hand a friend of Mrs J was flying on the old shuttle from Miami to the Bahamas in the 60’s, a passenger put his hand up her skirt, she nailed the shit heel with her serving tray, she got fired and he got an apology.

  26. 26.

    Gravenstone

    @Cheryl Rofer:

    But it’s only by practicing scary stuff that you learn to deal with it.

    Knew a guy once whose rather ‘grizzled’ flight instructor was a Marine Corp aviator in WWII. Took him up one day, distracted him then proceeded to pull the master power bus. Told the kid to go through his restart protocols. Was told it was quite the brown pants moment, but the instructor got his point across about procedures, contingencies and the critical importance of remaining as calm as possible once they went through the whole process together.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    @raven

    Still marvel at the pilot who safely brought that plane down here after forward sections of the roof of the fuselage peeled off in flight. Happened to be going to the airport to pick up some freight not long after (same day) and pulled over to the side of the road skirting the ass end of the airport to gawk at the plane, which had been pulled onto a cul de sac as much out of sight of the main terminal building as possible.

  28. 28.

    Ian G.

    @RP:

    Right, but as the headlines sadly remind us too often, a lot of people, like certain cops dealing with black people, DON’T know how to do their jobs under stressful situations full of the unknown. She did.

  29. 29.

    Brachiator

    Yesterday a Southwest Airlines flight from LaGuardia to Dallas lost an engine. That’s lost an engine, as in parts of it flew out.

    And a passenger died.

    The pilot, Tammie Jo Shults, brought the plane to an emergency landing at Philadelphia. The voice recording between her and air traffic control shows a total professional.

    Just saw a news story about her this morning. Yes, she was absolutely a stone cold hero, as you would want a pilot to be.

    A bit of black humor. The air traffic controllers could not seem to grasp that a passenger was partly sucked out of the aircraft when the pilot tried to explain it. You can hear them finally saying, “Never mind that.”

    She lives in the San Antonio area. I hope they give her a parade.

    And a movie.

  30. 30.

    Mandalay

    @ThresherK:

    this was the first fatality on a US commercial flight via mechanical failure since 2009

    Wow. That is an astounding statistic. Good for the FAA.

  32. 32.

    NeenerNeener

    I’m flying on Southwest from the northeast corner of New York State to Orlando in 10 days. I’m starting to get nervous about it now.

  37. 37.

    Cermet

    @Cheryl Rofer: I know and mentioned that the plane was damaged making it more difficult; remember the Hawaii flight that lost a very large section of its roof? Talk about damage to a plane and landing it.

  38. 38.

    Cermet

    @Aleta: I’m a pilot (now just a private pilot) and have flown jets, by the way. Also,. landed prop planes with no engine working so, have some experience with such things.

  39. 39.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @ThresherK:
    These planes have to have as low a fatality rate as they do because they have the capacity for so much destruction. And yes, that rate is amazing. Thanks FAA.

  43. 43.

    sherparick

    @Cermet: As an added measure, the fragments of the engine perforated and depressurized the cabin, shattered a window, and partially sucked a passenger outside the cabin before she was pulled back in (I believe this is the woman who died). A pretty good piece of flying.

  44. 44.

    Yutsano

    @NotMax: You can also bet Boeing engineers will be coming through that wreckage trying to figure out what went wrong. I’m starting to wonder if there might be quality problems in the engine manufacturer that need to be addressed. No real information there I’m just spitballing.

  46. 46.

    No Drought No More

    Also: hero pilot wanted to live as much as every thumb twiddling passenger and crew member aboard that jet. Given her training, too, it might be said that both God and U.S. taxpayers were her co-pilots during the event..

  47. 47.

    lurker dean

    [Pilot is speaking]Girl: Dad, who's that talking?Man: That's a lady pilot, honey.Me: (under breath) Actually, they're just called pilots.— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 21, 2016

  48. 48.

    ? Martin

    How about we just pay her well and give her a pension she can rely on? You know, like we used to do?

    Also worth noting that the Boeing 787 doesn’t have that window for exactly this reason. The engineers had realized that in the event of a broken fan blade that it might break that window, so they removed the window that is in alignment with the engine intake. I think it’s usually row 10. So, at least some of the preventative work for this kind of situation has already been done in newer jets.

  49. 49.

    NotMax

    @Cermet

    Friend here used to have a private pilot license and tells the story of one time flying solo from Maui to Molokai when the oil pump quit (based on later inspection, disintegrated would be more accurate) while he was over the channel between the islands.

    Somehow he made it to the airport and was able to walk away from a, shall we say, ultra-hard landing. IIRC, took out part of the perimeter fence. Swears he has no explanation other than luck for how he managed to cover the distance between where the failure occurred and the (then grassy) runway.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    #DianteYarber: California Cops Gun Down Father of 3 in Hail of Bullets. His Crime? Sitting in Walmart’s Parking Lot

    Kirsten West Savali
    Yesterday 9:15pm

    Barstow, Calif., police officers fired what sounded like more than 30 bullets into a car in Walmart’s parking lot, killing Diante “Butchie” Yarber, 26, and shooting two other passengers, including 23-year-old Marian Tafoya who was critically wounded.

    The incident occurred on the morning of April 5, when Yarber, the father of three girls, ages 9, 7, and 1, drove his cousin and friends to a local Walmart. Barstow police claim they were responding to a call about a “suspicious” vehicle in the parking lot, when they spotted Yarber waiting in a black Mustang for his passengers to return to the car.

    This, per usual, is where law enforcement’s account of events doesn’t appear to align with reality.

  51. 51.

    feebog

    I listened to the entire recording. The most striking thing to me was early on. The Air Traffic Controller asked the Pilot where she wanted to make her landing and she replied without hesitation Philadelphia. She has obviously already worked out at that point what the optimal landing filed would be. Pretty damn impressive.

  52. 52.

    NotMax

    @Yutsano

    The big modern jetliners also, IIRC, relay performance data in real time to the manufacturers, so that’s being sifted and re-sifted as well.

  53. 53.

    Yutsano

    @NotMax: I think you’re right in the 787 and the 737MAX. But if this was one of the older planes that wouldn’t have been included in the mainframe. But the flight recorders have much more sophisticated info than they used to, so both the mechanics and the engineers will be all over that.

  54. 54.

    Aleta

    @Gin & Tonic: I liked it a lot, interesting and fun in many ways–architecture, food, ease, lots of cultures mixing from a long ways back.
    I got all worked up about places you recommended. (Just what I wanted; thanks for answering me!) But then around 5 the hosts swerved to Indian. (“The” India, as a matter of fact. I like, but several good ones are avail. here, while French, Vietn, good Ital, etc, etc are not.) So I have to go back for seconds so to speak.

  55. 55.

    Cermet

    @raven: Yes. Happened on take off but well beyond the end of the runway. Landed in a field. Of course, had passengers. The fault was a bad fuel valve.

  57. 57.

    Ruckus

    @JanieM:
    One of the keys to responding to stress is to understand that the stress/situation won’t last forever, there is an end. You can react to the stress then. Long term issues, like the current political climate, you have to handle differently, because this much constant stress does one physical harm. You have to destress regularly.

  58. 58.

    trollhattan

    @Yutsano:
    Heard the Southwest CEO say last night the engine had been in service since the ’90s. Engine maker and Southwest maintenance folks will be key investigators here, along with Boeing since I think they make the shell the engine goes in.

  59. 59.

    Aleta

    @rikyrah:
    Contradicting the reports that went out early on to try to justify the murder by police

    Yarber was also driving his cousin’s car at the time, which was never reported stolen, said Aleta Yarber, Diante’s aunt, who said she has since retrieved the car and that it did not appear it had rammed into police vehicles. Police did not respond to inquiries about the claims that Yarber was a car theft suspect.

    There is more, too.

  62. 62.

    Cermet

    @NotMax: Oil pump failure? Very lucky to have made it very far at all.

    What is strange about a jet engine failure is only the blades have enough ‘momentum” to break out of the cowling but there is supposed to be shielding for that type of event – this is a very unusual failure.

  63. 63.

    trollhattan

    @NotMax:
    I live near a civil airport and a couple months ago heard a plane pass over the house making really wretched noises. Actually thought it was a hotrod motorcycle at first. Next day the paper had an article about a pilot who landed there with his engine on fire. Walked away and the plane was a total loss. I was very thankful he made it back to the runway.

  64. 64.

    Aleta

    @FlyingToaster: “thank FSM that we still have an operational FAA”.

    really good point to make especially now

    Also, though I’m not up on current situation, I believe privatizing ATC has been on some wish lists (Kochs) since the 80s and Reagan.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    Some of my friends and family tease me because, when I fly, I make sure that I have my cell phone, driver’s license, and a credit card in my pocket (ie on my person) at all times. Because an emergency like this is far more likely than a fatal crash these days, I want to make sure that I can call everyone to say I’m okay, prove who I am to the airline and TSA, and buy myself a drink afterwards.

  66. 66.

    Elizabelle

    I kinda wish we call the wonderful Captain Tammie Jo Shults, a HEROINE pilot. Let’s have some special applause for women. Not our fault literacy has fallen so much some listeners might think “drugs!” when they hear the word.

    Heroines are very important. Especially since “hero” is overused — it’s every military and police member. First responder mission creep. It’s become a militaristic kind of reference. That has to stop.

    Women deserve applause on their own. Let’s hear it for heroines.

    And yes: a lot of them are teachers and scientists too.

  68. 68.

    JustRuss

    @Gelfling 545:

    I was told by a philosophy professor in college that my point of view was interesting because I “ thought like a man”. I was expected to feel complimented.

    Please tell me your reply was: “Really? Which one?”

  70. 70.

    grammypat

    15 or so years ago, when I was a road warrior with multiple flights each week, my bestest evah landing was in Oklahoma City. We were approaching and then we were rolling to the gate. The passengers broke out in applause because none of us felt the touch down. Later when disembarking, we learned that a woman was in the left seat.

  71. 71.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Aleta: India is decent Indian, for PVD. Back around this time last year when I was visiting my surgeon’s office fairly frequently, nearby, I’d go for lunch there. But it’s not a destination restaurant. The food scene here is really vibrant, though – J&W is a major culinary school, with a bunch of alums either staying in town afterward, or being from the area and not leaving. So you’ll get a lot of creative, locavore-type places, at prices well below Boston or New York. You can make a decent living with a 40- or 50-seat place, at an approachable price point.

    Let me know when you come back.

  72. 72.

    Aleta

    @NeenerNeener: I always figure, after any negative event the company involved will probably be extra rigorous in checking everything out, maybe more than is required. So I like to assume they’ll be even more likely to double check on any possible issue than before. And less susceptible to the pressure to meet a schedule if something feels off.

  73. 73.

    Emily68

    Any time I’ve ever listened to the cockpit recording of a plane in trouble, I’m always impressed by how calm and collected the pilot sounds. The pilot’s voice doesn’t even go up a couple of octaves, like mine would. They must train a lot. Good for them and especially good for Capt. Shults.

  74. 74.

    Aleta

    @Gin & Tonic: It’s odd but prices there are also an entire floor below the (few) places here that present themselves as special (yet skip the food part). I suppose the money goes to hire design companies for the website, menu, decor trends, and pay investors. And then to keep up with the trend updates.

  75. 75.

    smintheus

    @NotMax: The plane whose engine blew up should have been air-worthy too. In all the hoopla about a pilot landing a stricken plane, I have seen zero discussion of the fact that Southwest failed to maintain the plane properly and killed a passenger as a result of their negligence.

    I suspect that distraction from that ugly fact is part of the reason for all the hoopla. It’s great to land a plane successfully while lacking one engine, but it’s hardly a miracle. That’s why pilots train so extensively.

  76. 76.

    Waratah

    I am late to this post but thank you Cheryl for posting about this pilot. I am excited to see a woman calmly do the job she was trained for and give women another hero. She deserves all the recognition she can get.

  78. 78.

    Skippy-san

    Ok, someone has to say it. Does anyone even know that all Southwest Airlines Jets have two pilots? And a flight crew of flight attendants? I get it that people are impressed the plane was saved and the pilot flew skillfully. But multi-engined, multi-crewed aircraft are team efforts. How about some recognition for the other pilot in the cockpit?

  79. 79.

    Gin & Tonic

    @smintheus:

    the fact that Southwest failed to maintain the plane properly and killed a passenger as a result of their negligence.

    Wow, the NTSB have issued their report already? Less than 24 hours after the incident? That’s unusual.

  80. 80.

    smintheus

    @Gin & Tonic: The engine blew up. That’s not supposed to happen. Unless the plane was hit by a projectile, the fault lies with Southwest for putting the plane in the air.

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