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It was one 10-minute snippet in time that made Tammie Jo Shults famous. A Southwest Airlines captain, Shults and
her co-pilot Darren Ellisor were celebrat- ed for successfully landing their Boeing 737 after a catastrophic, uncontained en- gine failure at altitude caused an explosive decompression that greatly compromised the aircraft’s f lying characteristics. She was hailed for her calm, decisive leader- ship and skill in handling an emergen- cy that’s outside the normal engine-out training scenarios.
While that event created her public persona, it is far from defining the per- son. Everything that she learned as a kid growing up on a rural New Mexico ranch, the hard lessons she learned as a Navy career pilot flying F/A-18’s and the central role that faith plays in her life shaped the person who showed up on April 17, 2018.
Last summer at AirVenture Oshkosh, I sat down with Tammie Jo to talk about her love of aviation, her career, and of course, that fateful day. She recently published a book called “Nerves of Steel” that is less about being the hero to 148 Southwest passengers, but all the challenges, victories, setbacks, people who doubted her as well as people who championed her that forged the steel within. Her story is inspiring, whether you’re a young person looking up the mountain yearning for the summit, or among those who’ve crested the pinnacle and are now enjoying the view.
Tammie Jo grew up on a working ranch that happened to be near Holloman Air Force base, giving her a front-row view of the fighters training over her house. But it wasn’t until she read Russell Hitt’s book “Jungle Pilot” about Nate Saint, a missionary pilot in Ecuador, did she think about becom- ing a pilot herself. While finishing her biology and agribusi- ness degrees at Mid-America Nazarene College, she met a woman who was awarded a pilot slot with the U.S. Air Force. Inspired, she applied, but was turned down. She then decided to try the Navy and was accepted for aviation officer candi- date school. That set the course for her military career, which
culminated with Tammie Jo becoming one of the first female Navy aviators to qualify in the F/A-18 Hornet. Because of the combat exclusion policy in place at the time, she in- structed as well as flew training missions as the aggressor pilot. In 1995, she was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and transitioned to the Navy Reserves, where she flew the F/A-18 and EA-6B Prowler until 2001. She married fellow Navy aviator Dean Shults, and she
launched her career at Southwest Airlines. On the morning of April 17, 2018, Tammie Jo was captain for a Southwest flight from New York to Dallas. Ironically, she was not scheduled to fly that day, in- stead replacing her husband Dean for this leg. When a left engine fan blade separated during cruise flight, it exploded the inner containment shield, peeled back the engine cowl and pierced the left side of the fuse- lage. The violent depressurization partially pulled a belted passenger out of a failed window, resulting in
her tragic death.
As every news outlet reported that day, Tammie Jo Shults
was able to successfully execute an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport. What wasn’t widely reported was how badly crippled the aircraft was, and how she and co- pilot Ellisor struggled to regain control due to the tremendous airframe damage. Uncontained engine failures aren’t something that is covered during training.
“The failure was sudden and very violent. The airplane snapped left and we were able to stop it passing 40 degrees. There was this tremendous shudder, so bad that we couldn’t read anything,” she recalled. “It wasn’t just a sudden loss of thrust on one side, it was basically a barn door in a hurricane from the engine cowling that was peeled back and remained attached. Since we were at high altitude, the airplane was squirrely with the tremendous amount of yaw that was induced.”
Tammie Jo also said they also were dealing with smoke in the cockpit, severed hydraulic and fuel lines, not to mention the explosive decompression caused by the fuselage breach. It wasn’t until they were passing through 8,000 feet did they learn
6 • TWIN & TURBINE / February 2020
Position Report
by Dianne White
Keep Calm and Keep Flying the Plane