‘Angels’, training help ex fighter pilot
PHILADELPHIA: The pilot who safely landed a stricken Southwest Airlines flight yesterday was a skilled former United States Navy pilot, experienced in touching down F18 fighter jets at 240kmh on aircraft carriers.
Tammie Jo Shults (56) may have drawn on her military aviation skills when one of the two engines on her Boeing 737700 blew and broke apart at 32,000 feet, forcing her to implement a rapid descent towards Philadelphia International Airport.
The explosion killed one passenger and nearly sucked another out of a shattered window.
One of the first female fighter pilots in the United States Navy, Shults calmly told air traffic control that part of her plane was missing, and she would need ambulances on the runway.
‘‘So we have a part of the aircraft missing so we’re going to need to slow down a bit,’’ Shults told a controller.
While Southwest Airlines declined to name the crew of flight 1380, passengers identified Shults as the pilot.
Shults was not available for comment.
Authorities said the crew did what they were trained to do.
‘‘They’re in the simulator and practise emergency descents . . . and losing an engine . . . They did the job that professional airline pilots are trained to do,’’ National Transportation Safety
Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said.
Many of the 144 passengers sang Shults’ praise on social media after she thanked them for their bravery as they left the plane.
‘‘The pilot Tammy [sic] Jo was so amazing! She landed us safely in Philly,’’ said Amanda Bourman on Instagram.
Bourman was among passengers who said they had been saved by divine intervention.
‘‘God sent his angels to watch over us,’’ she said.
Shults might never have become a pilot if she had not been so determined to fly from a young age. She is quoted on fighter plane blog F16.net saying she tried to attend an aviation career day at high school but was told they did not accept girls.
A native of New Mexico, she never lost the urge to fly and, after studying medicine in Kansas, applied to the US Air Force. It would not let her take the test to become a pilot, but the United States Navy did.
She was one of the first female F18 pilots and became an instructor before she left the navy in 1993 and joined Southwest, according to the blog.
A Christian, who is married to a fellow pilot and has two children, Shults said previously that sitting in the captain’s chair gave her ‘‘the opportunity to witness for Christ on almost every flight.’’
❛ God sent his angels to watch over us