Southwest Uncontained Engine Failure

[Bob_Belville]

I understand the need to transfer communication from center to approach to tower but that did add to her workload as she pointed out at one point. Surely there's protocol to minimize freq changes in an emergency...?

She had a copilot and apparently her spare engine had adequate power, even with a lot of fuel and a full plane to allow a reasonably normal landing - I think she must have requested a long final to avoid any steep turns? 

[ArtVandelay]

I understand the need to transfer communication from center to approach to tower but that did add to her workload as she pointed out at one point. Surely there's protocol to minimize freq changes in an emergency...?
She had a copilot and apparently her spare engine had adequate power, even with a lot of fuel and a full plane to allow a reasonably normal landing - I think she must have requested a long final to avoid any steep turns? 

I would think just switching to 121.5 would be the norm?

I assume whatever turn she was making when opposing the turning tendency of single engine operation is required to be shallow?

[MyNameIsNobody]

20 hours ago, Jim Peace said:

I do not think I would sound that calm......I wonder what it would take to actually rattle her cage?  maybe a unleashed dog running around the airport or some touch and go's in a Mooney or perhaps running out of camguard?

No, It surely is Garmin.  Anything with Garmin in the name.  Makes her act like a loon.

[MyNameIsNobody]

Pilot left no doubt as to who was in charge.  Clearly communicated and told what she was going to do.  When she described that there was a whole in the plane and someone was missing in response to query it was emotional for me as a listener.  Difficult to imagine any human handling a horrible situation better.  Well done Captain.

[kmyfm20s]

Accomplished pilot!

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6079747/tammie-jo-shults-southwest-airlines-1380-emergency-landing-pilot/

[Skates97]

My wife sent this to me yesterday.

[PTK]

Chesley “Sully" Sullenberger, Tammie Jo Shults and more to come. Profesdionals performing flawlessly under pressure and saving the day. These pax don’t know how lucky they were to have Captain Shults do what she had to do and bring them down safely.

She had said on flying it gives her the opportunity “to witness Christ on almost every flight.”

[MyNameIsNobody]

https://www.dailywire.com/news/29565/heroic-female-pilot-flying-planes-gives-me-hank-berrien

[jaylw314]

1 hour ago, MyNameIsNobody said:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/29565/heroic-female-pilot-flying-planes-gives-me-hank-berrien

I liked the last line, "her husband is also a pilot, Medical Class 1"????  WTF?  Nice journalism there, guys...

 

[Cruiser]

2 hours ago, PTK said:

Chesley “Sully" Sullenberger, Tammie Jo Shults and more to come. Profesdionals performing flawlessly under pressure and saving the day. These pax don’t know how lucky they were to have Captain Shults do what she had to do and bring them down safely.

She had said on flying it gives her the opportunity “to witness Christ on almost every flight.”

She was incredibly calm, when she acknowledged the handoff from Approach to Tower she told the controller, good day.

[Mooneymite]

Since the captain was talking on the radio and obviously managing the problem, was the copilot doing the PF (pilot flying) duties?

[Yetti]

There was point near the end where you could tell she got a bit emotional.  Probably when the rest of the crew performing an incredible job informed her of the hurt passenger.    My understanding was she spoke with each passenger.  PIC has a very large responsibility.  We all hope we will perform similarly when called upon.

[gsxrpilot]

2 hours ago, Mooneymite said:

Since the captain was talking on the radio and obviously managing the problem, was the copilot doing the PF (pilot flying) duties?

Actually if you listen all the way through it seems that the Captain was talking on the radio only for critical instructions and responses while less critical transmissions such as fuel, souls on board, and other items, were handled by the First Officer. Throughout the entire incident, both of them use the radio at different times. To me it is an example of excellent CRM. The Captain is likely flying the plane and handling the emergency comms with the FO lightening the load by handling all of the less critical or slightly unrelated procedures.

[Chris from PA]

Both pilots worked together and did a fantastic job in bringing this emergency to a successful conclusion. But don't think that they are the exception. Every time you get on an N registered carrier, certainly a major, you've got seasoned experts up front. They practice engine failures and depressurization scenarios routinely in the simulator. Many have a military background. While these two pilots should be commended for their professionalism I would submit that almost 100 percent of the crews out there would also perform at this level. You're in good hands

 

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[Mooneymite]

10 hours ago, gsxrpilot said:

Actually if you listen all the way through it seems that the Captain was talking on the radio only for critical instructions and responses while less critical transmissions such as fuel, souls on board, and other items, were handled by the First Officer. Throughout the entire incident, both of them use the radio at different times. To me it is an example of excellent CRM. The Captain is likely flying the plane and handling the emergency comms with the FO lightening the load by handling all of the less critical or slightly unrelated procedures.

The investigation will reveal who was flying and who did what on that SW jet.  However, it takes nothing away from the captain if she never touched the controls.  If it was the FOs leg, she may well have had him continue flying all the way through landing. 

As pilots, we tend to think that the "hero" was, like Sully, the pilot who was moving the controls,  but often the "hero" was the non-flying pilot who keeps the crew working together and manages all the resources.

For those who have seen Capt. Al Haynes' (a master of CRM) presentation on his handling of the DC-10 Sioux City accident, he said he made the greatest mistake in his aviation career when he said, "my controls", then he made the best decision of his career when he said, "your controls".

Al Haynes' presentation is an aviation classic and should be viewed by every pilot.  If I can find the Youtube link, I'll  post it in case someone has not seen it.

 

About 34 mins is where Al makes his famous quote.s 

[flyboy0681]

Let's just hope that the Feds don't start to doubt or call into question the actions of these heroes a 'la Sullenberger.

[PTK]

11 hours ago, Yetti said:

There was point near the end where you could tell she got a bit emotional.  Probably when the rest of the crew performing an incredible job informed her of the hurt passenger.    My understanding was she spoke with each passenger.  PIC has a very large responsibility.  We all hope we will perform similarly when called upon.

When called upon my hope is that I will perform half as good as she did.

[jaylw314]

2 hours ago, flyboy0681 said:

Let's just hope that the Feds don't start to doubt or call into question the actions of these heroes a 'la Sullenberger.

If you're referring to the depiction of the NTSB investigation in the movie "Sully", I recall an interview with Sullenberger after the movie came out where he said something to the effect of while he understood it was necessary to make a movie, the NTSB officials were entirely professional and there was not any of the adversarial interrogations depicted in the movie.

[jaylw314]

19 minutes ago, PTK said:

When called upon my hope is that I will perform half as good as she did.

When called upon, my hope is I will only need to clean poo out of the inside of the airplane--I have no expectation I will perform anywhere near as well as her

[mike_elliott]

5 hours ago, Chris from PA said:

Both pilots worked together and did a fantastic job in bringing this emergency to a successful conclusion. But don't think that they are the exception. Every time you get on an N registered carrier, certainly a major, you've got seasoned experts up front. They practice engine failures and depressurization scenarios routinely in the simulator. Many have a military background. While these two pilots should be commended for their professionalism I would submit that almost 100 percent of the crews out there would also perform at this level. You're in good hands

 

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And this level of professionalism is what we, as good stewards of GA and as Mooney pilots, should strive for in our own flying. This begins with our approach to ownership, preflight, proper use of lights, checklists, etc. Please do not settle for sloppiness or less than perfection in your duties as PIC, consider training often and constantly improve your proficiency. We are the weakest link in an accident scenario yet we are the ones we spend the least amount on.

[Marauder]

If you're referring to the depiction of the NTSB investigation in the movie "Sully", I recall an interview with Sullenberger after the movie came out where he said something to the effect of while he understood it was necessary to make a movie, the NTSB officials were entirely professional and there was not any of the adversarial interrogations depicted in the movie.

 

And they could not have picked a better guy to act as a prick than the lead investigator. He was the same actor who was the prick in the movie Concussion. He plays that role well. Wonder what he is like in real life.

 

 

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[EricJ]

51 minutes ago, jaylw314 said:

When called upon, my hope is I will only need to clean poo out of the inside of the airplane--I have no expectation I will perform anywhere near as well as her

I had a friend who had an engine failure on takeoff in a C150 while instructing and managed to make an impossible turn and land back on the runway.   It was her first significant emergency and one of her comments afterward was that she always wondered how well she'd react when something like that happened and she was glad that it wasn't as hard as she thought to keep it together.   She did handle it like a pro, I was mostly surprised that she'd doubted herself previously.

[Guest]

I think the outcome speaks to her military training.  Think of the numbers of young men in WW2 who flew into combat with much less training, who then brought their planes home with much worse damage.

Clarence

[jaylw314]

17 minutes ago, Marauder said:

And they could not have picked a better guy to act as a prick than the lead investigator. He was the same actor who was the prick in the movie Concussion. He plays that role well. Wonder what he is like in real life.

You're right, he was fantastic at playing a prick!  Of course, he was also Kurt's dad in "Glee," and he was super cool there, so hopefully he doesn't get typecast as one

[jaylw314]

8 minutes ago, EricJ said:

I had a friend who had an engine failure on takeoff in a C150 while instructing and managed to make an impossible turn and land back on the runway.   It was her first significant emergency and one of her comments afterward was that she always wondered how well she'd react when something like that happened and she was glad that it wasn't as hard as she thought to keep it together.   She did handle it like a pro, I was mostly surprised that she'd doubted herself previously.

To some degree, I'd say keeping self-doubt is a motivation for self-improvement.  Obviously, too much of a good thing is not better, but I think most of us err on the side of self-confidence, otherwise we would never have gone into this activity in the first place.

There has been only a tiny bit of research into what predicts who will be good in a crisis or under pressure vs who won't be.  Interestingly, most of that was all those psychological studies on the original 7 astronauts, like they depicted in "The Right Stuff."