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  • JUDY WOODRUFF: Next: the pilot in charge of that emergency landing of a Southwest Airlines

  • jet this week.

  • Southwest Flight 1380, traveling from New York City to Dallas on Tuesday, had to land

  • in Philadelphia 20 minutes after takeoff.

  • One of the engines had exploded in midair, sending metal fragments into the wing and

  • into the cabin.

  • Passenger Jennifer Riordan died after a nearby window shattered and she was pulled halfway

  • out the opening, while other passengers tried to save her.

  • Most of the 148 other people on the plane were not hurt, and pilot Tammie Jo Shults,

  • a former Navy pilot, was praised for how she handled the emergency.

  • Here is some of Shults' communication with air traffic control.

  • TAMMIE JO SHULTS, Southwest Airline Pilot: Southwest 1380 would like to turn -- start

  • turning inbound.

  • AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Southwest 1380, turn -- just start turning southbound there.

  • There's a Southwest 737 on a four-mile final -- it will be turning southbound.

  • Start looking for the airport.

  • It's off to your right and slightly behind you there and altitude is your discretion.

  • Use caution for the downtown area.

  • TAMMIE JO SHULTS: OK.

  • Could you have the medical meet us there on the runway as well?

  • We have got injured passengers.

  • AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Injured passengers, OK.

  • And are you -- is your airplane physically on fire?

  • TAMMIE JO SHULTS: Not fire, it's not on fire, but part of it's missing.

  • They said there's a hole and someone went out.

  • AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: I'm sorry.

  • You said there was a hole and somebody went out?

  • TAMMIE JO SHULTS: Yes.

  • AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Southwest 1380, it doesn't matter.

  • We will work it out there.

  • So, the airport is just off to your right.

  • Report it in sight, please.

  • TAMMIE JO SHULTS: In sight.

  • Southwest 1380.

  • Airport is in sight.

  • JUDY WOODRUFF: A remarkable exchange.

  • And our science correspondent, who is also an aviation expert, Miles O'Brien, joins me

  • now.

  • So, Miles, I think everybody who was on that plane who has been talking to the press has

  • been saying how grateful they are to the pilot, Tammie Jo Shults.

  • I mean, remarkable calm.

  • Just how difficult is it to fly a plane under those circumstances?

  • MILES O'BRIEN: Judy, the flight crew had an awful lot going on at once, two major emergencies

  • simultaneously, a presumed engine fire, the loss of an engine, all that goes along with

  • that, and an explosive rapid decompression, all that goes along with that.

  • Those are two emergencies that flight crews train for and learn by memory what to do.

  • And they had to sort through those checklists simultaneously, while, all at once, the aircraft

  • steeply banking to the left 45 degrees because of the loss of thrust and the extra drag caused

  • by the explosion in the engine, and on top of that having to get down as quickly as possible

  • to an altitude of 10,000 feet, where the air is thick enough for people to breathe.

  • And yet what you hear on the radio on the other side of that cockpit door was as routine

  • as it gets, calm, cool, collected.

  • Tammie Jo Shults proved what a great pilot she is.

  • I suspect, given her Navy background, she's been in some tight situations.

  • Landing an F-18 on an aircraft carrier at night in bad weather is not for faint of heart,

  • but this was certainly no walk in the park, and she did it perfectly.

  • JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, a lot of people are enormously grateful to her.

  • But, Miles, that Navy training really can make a difference for a pilot, can't it?

  • MILES O'BRIEN: Yes, a lot of people have been making comparisons to Sully Sullenberger and

  • his landing in the Hudson River a few years back.

  • I think the common thread here is both these pilots were trained by the military, in case

  • of Sullenberger the Air Force, in Tammie Jo Shults' case the Navy.

  • For years, for decades, the airlines have benefited from the most amazing pilot training

  • in the world done by military, essentially free training.

  • And it really matters the most when the chips are down, as we saw the other day in Philadelphia.

  • As time goes on, there are fewer of these pilots moving into the airline world.

  • There are fewer of them in general, fewer cockpits in the military.

  • And the military is hanging on to these pilots longer because it's very expensive to lose

  • them.

  • And so we have to wonder if the civilian training doesn't quite match the military training

  • in some respects.

  • And you have to wonder, as we look toward the future of airline flying, if the civilian

  • training may want to up its game a little bit.

  • JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, Miles, the FAA is saying that it's ordering inspections of these engines,

  • looking for metal fatigue.

  • Talk about the significance of that.

  • MILES O'BRIEN: Well, what's most significant, Judy, is there is a hauntingly parallel incident

  • that happened, same airline, same type of aircraft, same type of engine, in August of

  • 2016.

  • The only difference is, nobody got hurt.

  • The aircraft got on the ground safely, but exactly the same thing happened, with metal

  • fatigue as the cause, and that fan blade being spit out like a hot, fast piece of shrapnel.

  • Subsequent to that, the manufacturer of the engine, CFM, which is a joint venture between

  • GE and the French jet engine maker Safran, sent out a service bulletin to the airlines

  • who had these engines and said, hey, you probably should do some ultrasound testing of these

  • fan blades to make sure there are no cracks, because they're not necessarily visible.

  • Southwest was among the airlines who resisted that call and said they just needed more time

  • to do it and had not done those inspections.

  • So, the truth is, if the FAA, the NTSB had acted quicker and with more urgency after

  • that first event in August 2016, this event might not have happened.

  • JUDY WOODRUFF: But you're saying Southwest and other airlines resisted?

  • MILES O'BRIEN: They did.

  • You know, the airline business is a profit-making business.

  • And the fact of the matter is, safety always cost money.

  • And this particular event, as troubling as it should have been its own in August 2016,

  • wasn't treated with the urgency, I think, it should have.

  • JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, now it is certainly getting more attention, a lot more attention.

  • Miles O'Brien, we thank you, as always.

  • MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome, Judy.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Next: the pilot in charge of that emergency landing of a Southwest Airlines

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