Female Pilot Shows Nerves of Steel

well it felt like a Mack truck hit the side of the aircraft that's captain Tammy Joe Schultz described the scene when her plane's engine suddenly went up in flames at that moment the lives of more than 140 passengers were in the hands of a pilot who'd been told she'd never be able to fly on April 17 2018 20 minutes after Southwest Airlines flight 1380 took off captain Tammy Joe Schultz experienced a catastrophic engine failure which caused an explosion that severely crippled the aircraft the rapid depressurization made it difficult to see hear and breathe the times but Tammy Jo and her crew remained calm she relied on her faith and her years of extensive training as a former Navy aviator to gain control of the Boeing 737 in her memoir nerves of steel Tammy Jo shares how she followed her dreams earned her wings and safely landed Southwest Airlines flight 1380 please welcome to the 700 club the hero a flight 1380 Tammy Joe Schultz it's wonderful to have you with us thank you thank you if you had to guess how many times in your life were you told girls don't fly Oh a number of times by people who could who could make it happen or not yes but which was really I think the part of it that became discouraging after a while there was a window of time where even though that had been your dream you kind of set that aside based on all of the negatives you'd heard what happened to changed and brought you back into paths with your original dream well part of it was just seeing a woman getting her wings in the in a class there at Vance Air Force Base and I realized okay they said that girls don't fly but I'm I'm seeing it so after talking to her and realizing okay there is a way under the fence and I'm gonna find it even in your attempts to go into the military and to become a pilot you were told all along the way that that wasn't possible you finally go into the Navy to do this did you did you have a lot of discrimination along the way tell me about what happened well I think when I mean I was the only female in my squadron for the first three squadrons in two years so of course if you're a green apple and a bushel of red you can sometimes garner more attention than you would like and I served with some incredible men prince among men and great aviators but of course every once in a while there would be someone who thought that they didn't want to be challenged by a girl doing the same thing they were doing and made life a little tough the hard part about that and reading your book is also frustrated for you was you could have spoken up about those things but you would have had to live with even greater repercussion after the facts so you just kind of decided to tough it out that had to be difficult and miserable well you know I mean the things we learn at home sometimes serve as well throughout life and that one of the things that that my parents especially my mom said was tell God on them I mean get on your knees when you finish pray for them and and then review what are you are you meeting resistance because it's not a wise thing to do or you know what's your motive and what's your merit and so I would compare my motive to theirs and feel like mine was more noble exactly and and just let the Lord handle that and move on study harder move on be better exactly and God often uses those hard things in our lives to hone us oh I think so to prepare us it made you do more go farther be better so let's go back to last April and what actually happened in that Southwest flight that you were commandeering now let's talk about you had a hundred and forty some people on board yes 149 and just about the time as you took off that most pilots are kind of you know loosening the tie a little bit and sitting back and saying we made it we're up we're at you were at 32,000 some in the air what happened well Darrin Ellis or my first officer and I both thought we'd been hit by another aircraft that we'd had a mid-air because the jolt was so violent and the aircraft went into a snap roll to the left and we both caught it and leveled the wings and and then just as quickly there was suddenly such a shuddering of the aircraft and a roar through the aircraft that we couldn't focus our eyes on anything we couldn't hear each other and then we couldn't breathe and so that was the beginning so how did you gather your wits about you Tammy Jo to figure out what to do next smoke filled the cabin at one point I mean you can't even see the instruments much - let's decide what you're going to do you can't speak as you said to the copilot so how did you communicate with each other and how did you decide what to do next well being isolated like that adrenaline kicks in and I remember thinking good news bad news and the bad news was I didn't think everything would stay on the aircraft for us to get it to the ground and that kind of led me to the the mental cliff of what if which would be this would be the day that I meet my maker and that's when I stopped the rush stopped and I just had a calm because I realized I wouldn't be meeting a stranger that I meet with him every day and so that is where I stepped away with a calm in my heart that I think was reflected in my voice but also in just being able to think through the many decisions that Darin and I needed to make to get to the runway in Philadelphia they were layers deep and they had to keep changing with the circumstances what had actually happened the caused all of it well and we just dealt with the symptoms for a while what we didn't know it happened was the number one engine had exploded and and then shredded the cowling back so that it stayed attached kind of like a banana peeling and it was flailing and 500 mile an hour wind and it had also taken chunks out of the leading edge and damaged a window which had blown out and so that caused the roar that caused the rapid depressurization there was also just an unscripted combination of emergencies that ensued hydraulic lines were cut fuel lines were cut and and so we were dealing with drag that we hadn't ever practiced dealing with and and then getting closer to the ground we realized we didn't have level off capability that the thrust from the good engine wasn't all ours to use how did you land this thing I'm very carefully and and truthfully with with layers of experience and and training and I've been asked every once in a while if I felt like the Lord landed the plane and I said no he had prepared me for years I've been poor man to me for years to take care of that what is the three takeaways you want people to get from your book nerves of steel I would say it would be habits heroes and hope habits being what we choose as a habit on a meet with the Lord every day and you pray before every flight probably my most important habit and and and those are instincts in a bad day we have that generous gift of choice heroes no title no equipment required just taking the time to see and the effort to act on behalf of someone else yeah and last but most important hope when we had a plan and a destination and and communicated that it gave our flight attendants and passengers hope and you said over the loudspeaker we're not going down we're going to Philadelphia right right and and I think that you know having a destination whether it's in an airplane that's a rough rough ride or in life that that element of a destination doesn't have to change our circumstances it changes us and that's enough it's a gripping story nerves of steel is her brand new book want to mention also there's a nerves of steel coming out for young people oh yes in September right my heart is wrapped around now what is this one out it's the same thing that's got a few more stories than what the nerves of still does they're shorter chapters but he was junior high and a junior book that put my paths on the feet my feet on the path to aviation yeah that's for your school library folks Tammy Joe thank you for being on the program what an amazing story Thank You les you

Channel: The 700 Club

Views: 199,309

Rating: 4.814929 out of 5

Keywords: nerves of steel, tammie jo shults, female pilot, fighter pilot, pilot saved lives, plane emergency, god, interview, 700 club interview, emergency landing, southwest airlines, southwest flight 1380, flight 1380, engine failure

Id: RjJXxurSZ8o

Length: 9min 10sec (550 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019