Panic on a Plane

God doesn’t let us see one moment into our future for a reason. You get a nice window seat on a plane and soon after takeoff you are dead after being sucked out of a window. It should be an event in a bad fictional suspense novel but it is true and it recently happened. Maybe the unfortunate event should be a wake-up call that we need to inspect our planes more often for engine damage. Maybe we should take planes who have worn out old parts from 20 years of continuous air travel out of commission. More importantly maybe we should recognize the greatness of women under stressful situations.

When a child or anyone has an injury we run to our mothers for that Band Aid or for a good hug when someone has been mean to us. Women have always been the first responders in our lives. We need to give credit more to the brave women who get us out of disastrous situations the best way they can. The pilot who got the rest of those passengers down to safety was a rare women in the skies at the controls. There are only 6% of women pilots for British Airways, 7% for Lufthansa and United Airlines with 7.4% and these are the Airlines with the most female pilots. Why don’t they hire more girls?

The plane was a Southwest 737 plane. The left engine exploded at 30 thousand feet. Then a mother of two, a wife who was also a bank executive got partially sucked out of the plane’s shattered window despite the fact that she was wearing her seat belt. Why do the flight attendants get to wear shoulder belts too and not the passengers? Would a shoulder brace like we wear in cars have saved her life? Did the flight number 1380 have anything to do with it having the dreaded unlucky number 13 in it? Investigators say that fan blade number 13 in the engine cracked and caused the tragedy. Just saying!

The female pilot remained very calm despite that she knew someone was sucked out of a window, the plane lost pressure within minutes and veered left for a 40 degree   turn. A normal degree turn shouldn’t exceed 20 degrees. The pilot decided that landing the plane was to do   it at a high speed of 190 miles per hour. That is 55 miles per hour faster than a normal landing.  The plane was old. It took off and landed 40 thousand times. The engines get fatigue cracks from being in constant use. The FAA will require more inspections of jet engines now.

The pilot Captain Tammy Jo Shultz is one of the first women pilots who flew for the Navy in fighter jets. The co- Pilot Darren Ellisor is an Air Force Veteran. We must be extremely grateful to all our military trained men and women who continually work to keep us safe. These two brought that crippled plane down safely. Read the book called Military Fly Moms by Linda Maloney where there is a passage where the pilot reflects in 2012 her ambition to fly. Now she will join the exclusive club of hero pilots like Sully who safely landed a plane with two damaged engines on the Hudson River for saving lives in an amazing way.