Habits, Heroes and Hope

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Tammie Jo Schult

Habits, Heroes and Hope

Meet Tammie Jo Schult

Born in Texas, Tammie Jo grew up with a dream of aviation while watching planes zip through the air in her backyard. From the very beginning her dream of flying was often put down by men, even some women, who believed three simple words, “Girls don’t fly.” Tammie Jo did not let these people stop her success in the aviation field and pushed through every obstacle that was thrown at her. In her book “Nerves of Steel” she talks about growing up in the Christian faith, and how her relationship with God only grew closer as she worked through setbacks in her journey to become an aviator.

College and aviation

When told that girls don’t fly, Tammie Jo decided she would go to college for agriculture and pre-med so she could become a veterinarian. She got involved in sports during college which kept her in shape and allowed her to meet new friends. Near the end of college, she met a women who had just graduated AFROTC and was going to be a pilot in the military. It was too late for Tammie Jo to join the ROTC program so unfortunately, after she graduated, her parents couldn’t afford to send her to vet school so she moved back to her family’s farm and worked with them. She moved through different jobs, but the dream to fly was still there so she took up flying lessons.Eventually Tammie Jo went to talk to AF and Army Recruiters but they both said “The military has no need for women.” She went and talked to a Navy recruiter who let her take the ASVAB, she was then told, “Your scores meet the requirements for a man but not for a women.” Tammie Jo went back to helping her family on the farm but eventually she went back to the Navy recruiter one more time. This new recruiter processed her ASVAB scores, told her she was 6 points under the requirement but she could study and take the test again. She studied passed and then was sent off to AOCS, Aviation Officer Candidate School.

In The Navy

Tammie Jo experienced a ton of misogyny in the military. From the moment she stepped in to AOCS, she had a target on her back. She tells us that she eventually got used to the comments of “Girls don’t fly” and “Girls shouldn’t be in the military.” She worked her way through AOCS, ground school, finished one of the top in her class and then moved on to planes like the T-2, the A-7 and eventually the F/A-18 Hornet. She became one of the first female pilots to qualify for the Hornet and was the first woman to command an operational air squadron.

Southwest Airlines

Once Tammie Jo left the Navy, she worked as a fire fighter for about a year. Her job was to fly a Cessna that did reconnaissance and guided the other airplanes on where to drop the fire retardant. After that she spoke with a pilot for Southwest Airlines who recommended that she get here Boeing 737 certification so she could apply for a job at Southwest. She got the job and immediately started facing misogyny in the workplace again. Three different pilots all viewed her as inferior and made sure her time with them was hell. One pilot even questioned her safety record and had Tammie Jo fired. She eventually got her job back with the help of her old CO along with other pilots. She eventually got her job back and spent over two decades working for Southwest.

 

Flight 1380

On April 17th, 2018. Tammie Jo took off from New York LaGuardia Airport to Dallas Love Field Airport. Once they were at 32,000 feet and around Philadelphia, a piece of the left engines fan blade came off and damaged the engine cowling, causing the engine to fail and barely be attached to the airplane. This caused a window to be blown out and a passenger to be partially ejected. Meanwhile in the cockpit, Tammie Jo and her first officer were dealing with the increased amount of drag on the left side, the cabin becoming depressurized and smoke filling the cockpit. They couldn’t see, hear or breathe, but they managed to get their oxygen masks on and start communicating with ATC to tell them their situation. Tammie Jo managed to land the plane, single engine, with only one casualty being the woman who got partially ejected. She is recognized today as a hero.

This video provides a detailed description and amazing animations of the inner workings of the plane and how it crashed. https://youtu.be/8VcWX1zAuEs

 

“Captain Shults and her crew effectively used human factors to make sure this aircraft came safely down to the ground.  Pay close attention to how they dealt with this problem.”

What was it like to be on that plane???

A passenger live streams the experience!

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