Tammie Jo Shults, who landed crippled Southwest plane, was one of first female fighter pilots in...

Tammie Jo Shults (56) - one of our first female military jet fighter pilots - who transitioned to civilian heavy aircraft transports - saved 149 souls on board - when port side engine compressor disintegrated - sending fan blade shrapnel into the fuselage, blowing out a window - and partially sucking one passenger out from the cabin. Tammie calmly regained control of the aircraft, communicated the emergency, loss of aircraft components, and the need for medical assistance upon landing. She landed the aircraft with no further incident - passengers burst into applause - and she walked down the aisle checking on passengers. Tammie is one cool headed customer - she is an exceptional role model for all dedicated military fighter and civilian transport aircraft pilots.

“She was talking to us very calmly. We’re descending, we’re not going down, we’re descending, just stay calm, brace yourselves. Everybody keep your masks on. She didn’t slam it down. She brought the bird down very carefully. She came back and talked to every individual in there personally and shook every hand. She had a bomber jacket on.”

Audio recordings of the radio communications between Flight 1380 and air traffic controllers detail how Tammie coped with a nightmare situation: a forced emergency landing under partial power, and after losing pressure in the cabin.

Tammie made an initial call to air traffic control, but her next communications were either lost in dense static or consisted only of the plane's alarm systems beeping. Finally, she got through.

Tammie: "Southwest 1380 has an engine fire. Descending."

Air traffic control: "South 1380 — you're descending right now?"

Tammie: "Yes sir, we're single-engine descending, have a fire in No. 1."

ATC: "All right, Southwest 1380. OK, where would you like to go to? Which airport?"

The closest one, Tammie replies, before adding, "Philadelphia."

Tammie then clarifies that there's no longer a fire but that the engine is lost.

After confirming a new heading and a lower altitude, Tammie adds, "If you would, have them roll the [emergency] trucks. It's on engine No. 1 — captain's side."

Several times in the recordings, Tammie ends her communication with one air traffic controller as she passes to another handler by using a standard and courteous signoff: "Good day."

Evidently hoping to simplify communications as she and the crew dealt with a dynamic situation, Tammie later announces, "We need a single channel. No more channel switching."

Tammie later speaks to controllers for the Philadelphia airspace, who asked another Southwest flight to maintain a higher speed on its final approach to the runway — so that plane could land before the stricken airliner began its approach behind it.

"Southwest 1380, I understand your emergency," an air traffic controller says. "Let me know when you want to go in."

"We have a part of the aircraft missing, so we're going to need to slow down a bit," Tammie replies, before settling into a lower altitude of 3,000 feet.

Tammie later asked for medical personnel to meet the plane on the runway to help injured passengers.

"Injured passengers OK," the air traffic controller says. "And are you — is your airplane physically on fire?"

"No, it's not on fire, but part of it's missing," Tammie replies. After a brief period of on-air silence, she adds, "They said there's a hole and ... and, uh, someone went out."

That drew a seemingly surprised response from air traffic control: "Um, I'm sorry, you said there was a hole and somebody went out?"

But the controller quickly got back on task: "Southwest 1380, doesn't matter — we'll work it out. There, uh — so, the airport's just off to your right. Report it in sight, please."

"In sight," Tammie responds. "Flight 1380, airport's in sight."

The damaged airliner was still able to touch down on its landing gear. As it traveled down the runway, the airport tower told the plane's flight crew members to turn right and stop wherever they could.

"Thank you. We're going to stop right here by the fire trucks," Tammie says. "Thanks, guys, for the help."

“As Captain and First Officer of the Crew of five who worked to serve our Customers aboard flight 1380 yesterday, we all feel we were simply doing our jobs. Our hearts are heavy. On behalf of the entire Crew, we appreciate the outpouring of support from the public and our coworkers as we all reflect on one family’s profound loss.”

Tammie joined the Navy in 1985 and completed flight training in Pensacola, Fla. She rose to the rank of lieutenant commander before leaving the Navy Reserve in 2001. In her Navy career, Tammie served in the VAQ-34 Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron in Point Mugu, Calif., as a pilot flying the F/A-18 Hornet and the EA-6B Prowler.

Tammie was among the first female pilots "to transition to tactical aircraft" such as fighter jets, the Navy says. In the early 1990s, her squadron was highlighted for its "avant garde" approach to integrating women and men into all responsibilities.

Tammie is one of a small percentage of female pilots in the commercial airline industry. Just 6.33% of commercial pilots are women, according to 2016 data from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). And starting at a young age, Tammie faced adversity throughout her career as she navigated the male-dominated field.

Before she became a Southwest pilot, Tammie was one of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy. Tammie initially had limited options in the Navy due to combat exclusion laws that prevented women from flying combat aircraft. But when the law was repealed in 1993, she became one of the first women to fly the Navy’s combat jets.

She then learned to fly the F/A-18 Hornet — a newer Navy fighter jet at the time, she wrote in a passage for the book Military Fly Moms, which features insights from female pilots. But she still had to do so in a support role. “Women were new to the Hornet community, and already there were signs of growing pains,” she wrote. She struggled with her training unit, she said, due to their lack of “open-mindedness about flying with women.” But that mentality was hardly anything new for female pilots at the time.

“Not only is Tammie Jo a great pilot but she is a person of character and integrity,” said Linda Maloney, who flew with her in the 1990s in the Navy and who wrote Military Fly Moms, told MONEY. “She is one of the best … personable, warm, caring and just an amazing person,” Maloney added.

By even expressing interest in aviation, Tammie was met with adversity. As a senior in high school in New Mexico in 1979, she attended a lecture from a retired colonel on aviation as part of a vocational day program, she wrote in Military Fly Moms.

“He started the class by asking me, the only girl in attendance, if I was lost,” she wrote. “I mustered up the courage to assure him I was not and that I was interested in flying. He allowed me to stay but assured me there were no professional women pilots.”

From there, she struggled to understand her desire to fly, as the field wasn’t very accepting of women. She had limited opportunities for most of her career in the Navy before the combat exclusion law was repealed, and she still lands in the minority as part of a small percentage of female pilots for commercial airlines.

“Tammie Jo’s professionalism and skill doesn’t surprise me at all,” Kathryn McCullough, a retired Northwest Airlines captain and member of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots, told MONEY in an e-mail. “That is what baffles me … Why don’t more airlines want women pilots? We are calm, capable and more than qualified.”

Indeed, when starting her career, the Air Force “wasn’t interested in talking to” her, she wrote in Military Fly Moms. “But they wanted to know if my brother wanted to fly,” she noted.

The Navy “was a little more charitable,” she said, and allowed her to fill out an application for aviation officer candidate school. It wasn’t until a year after she took her Navy aviation exam did she find a recruiter to process her application. “Within two months, I was getting my hair buzzed off and doing pushups in aviation officer candidate school in Pensacola, Florida," she wrote.

While attending MidAmerica Nazarene University in Kansas, Tammie found new inspiration to become a pilot. She met a woman who received her Air Force wings, therefore having the ability to operate an Air Force aircraft. “I set to work trying to break into the club,” Tammie wrote.

In the Navy, Tammie worked for Commander Rosemary Mariner, the first female commander of the Point Magu, California-based VAQ-34, a tactical electronic warfare squadron of the U.S. Navy that is no longer active.

“Commander Mariner opened my eyes to the incredible influence of leadership,” Tammie wrote. “She was a shining example of how to lead.”

“Some people grow up around aviation,” Tammie wrote in her contribution to Maloney’s Military Fly Moms. “I grew up under it.” She would watch the daily air show as a kid and found the desire to become a pilot herself.

Tammie met her husband, Dean, when they both were in the Navy. Calling him her “knight in shining airplane,” the couple married just 10 months after they met and both, fortunately, then had orders to transfer to the base in Lemoore, California.

They both left the Navy together in the 1990s to focus on their family life. Now, they have children and are both Southwest pilots.

Both Tammie and her husband, Dean, are pilots for Southwest and live in Texas.

"She's a formidable woman, as sharp as a tack," Tammie’s brother-in-law, Gary Shults, told the AP. "My brother says she's the best pilot he knows. She's a very caring, giving person who takes care of lots of people."

http://abc7chicago.com/travel/who-is-hero-southwest-pilot-tammie-jo-shults/3366096/