KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Southwest Airlines pilot who made an emergency landing after an engine on her plane failed is being hailed as a hero for her handling of the incident.
Tammi Jo Shults is from Olathe, Kansas, and graduated from MidAmerica Nazarene University in 1983.
She was also among the first women to become a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy, according to MNU.
In a Facebook post, MNU recognized Shults’ heroic efforts and expressed condolences to everyone on the flight.
The plane’s engine blew mid-flight, and Shults had to guide it carefully from more than 30,000 feet in the are to the ground in Philadelphia.
In air traffic control audio, Shults can be heard handling the situation calmly. Passengers later said Shults exhibited great professionalism and spoke to each one of them after the plane had landed.
One passenger died at a hospital. Witnesses said the cabin de-pressurized, and she was sucked out of a broken window before they pulled her back in. Seven other passengers suffered minor injuries.
The exact plane involved in the incident had stopped at KCI three times in the last two weeks, most recently on April 10.
