Tammie Jo Shults: Southwest Pilot Who Landed Plane Is Navy Vet

By Tactical-Life

Tammie Jo Shults, the hero Southwest pilot who emergency-landed a plane after its engine exploded in mid-air, is a Navy veteran who broke ground as one of the first female fighter pilots in the military.

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The Incident

As the Kansas City Star reports, Shults was piloting Southwest Airlines Flight 1380—a twin-engine Boeing 737 traveling from New York to Dallas with 149 people on board—when one of its engines blew out at 32,000 feet. Shrapnel from the explosion destroyed a window and nearly caused a woman to be sucked out of the aircraft, but a group of passengers managed to pull her back in.

A calm, cool and collected Shults can be heard informing air traffic controllers of the situation.

“Southwest 1380, we’re single engine,” Shults said. “We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.”

Shults then asks if medical personnel could meet the plane on the runway in Philadelphia to treat injured passengers.

“Injured passengers, okay, and is your airplane physically on fire?” an air traffic controller asks.

“No, it’s not on fire, but part of it’s missing,” Shults replies. “They …Read the Rest

Source:: Tactical Life