*This may sound like an old episode of The Twilight Zone, but I can guarantee you it is not. It really happened. An engine exploded mid-air on Southwest Airlines Flight 1380, and a female passenger was sucked partially out of the plane’s window.
Now audio has emerged of the conversation between the plane’s pilot and air traffic control; and the composure of the pilot during what had to be one of the most frightening things a person has ever had to endure is nothing short of astounding.
Tammie Jo Shults, the pilot flying SW Airlines flight 1380, was able to bring the plane to a successful emergency landing as she explains to air traffic control what has happened.
An explosion from the engine sent shrapnel smashing into the Boeing 737-700, shattered a window and pulled passenger Jennifer Riordan a 43-year-old mother of two from Albuquerque, New Mexico, halfway out of the plane.
Riordan was pulled back in by passengers, but later died from her injuries.
She is said to be the first person to die in an accident involving a US airline in nine years.
Shults, a former Navy fighter pilot, one of the first females in the position, is being hailed a hero, All through this harrowing experience in the air, you can hear her maintaining professional composure, strength and courage as she speaks to air traffic control.
She tells traffic control, “Yeah, we have part of the aircraft missing so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.”
They respond, “Southwest 1380, speed is your discretion. Maintain any altitude above 3,000 feet.”
Shults: “OK. Could you have medical meet us there on the runway as well, we’ve got, um, injured passengers.”
He repeats, “Injured passengers. OK, and is your plane physically on fire?”
“No its not on fire but part of it’s missing,” Shults responds. “They said there’s a hole and, um, someone went out,” she adds.
I’m sorry. You said there was a hole and somebody went out?
Article continues at EURThisNthat.
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