(dramatic music)

- Well, it felt like aMack truck hit the side

of the aircraft, that'show Captain Tammy Jo Shults

described the scenewhen her plane's engine

suddenly went up in flames.

At that moment the livesof more than 140 passengers

were in the hands of apilot who'd been told

she'd never be able to fly.

(dramatic music)

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] On April17th, 2018, 20 minutes

after Southwest Airlinesflight 1380 took off,

Captain Tammie Jo Shults

experienced a catastrophic engine failure

which caused an explosion that severely

crippled the aircraft.

The rapid depressurizationmade it difficult to see,

hear and breathe at times

but Tammie Jo and her crew remained calm.

She relied on her faith andher years of extensive training

as a former Navy aviator togain control of the Boeing 737.

In her memoir, Nerves of Steel,

Tammie Jo shares howshe followed her dreams,

earned her wings and safely

landed Southwest Airlines flight 1380.

- Please welcome to The 700Club, the hero of flight 1380,

Tammie Jo Shults.

It's wonderful to have you with us.

- Thank you, thank you for having me.

- If you had to guess, howmany times in your life

were you told, girls don't fly?

- Oh, a number of timesby people who could

make it happen or not.

- Yes, which was really,I think the part of it

that became discouraging after awhile.

There was a window oftime where even though

that had been your dream,you kinda set that aside

based on all of thenegatives you've heard.

What happened that changedand brought you back into path

with your original dream?

- Well, part of it was justseeing a woman getting her wings

in a class there at Vance Air Force Base

and I realized, okay, theysaid that girls don't fly

but I'm seeing it.

So, after talking toher and realizing okay

there is a way under thefence and I'm gonna find it.

- Even in your attemptsto go into the military

and to become a pilot, youwere told all along the way

that that wasn't possible.

You finally go into the Navy to do this,

did you have a lot ofdiscrimination along the way,

tell me about what happened.

- Well, I think when, Imean, I was the only female

in my squadron for the firstthree squadrons in two years

so of course, if you're agreen apple in a bushel of red,

you can sometimes garner moreattention than you would like.

And I served with some incredible men,

prince among men and great aviators

but of course, every onceand awhile there would be

someone who thought that theydidn't want to be challenged

by a girl doing the samething they were doing

and made life a little tough.

- The hard part aboutthat in reading your book,

I felt so frustrated for you was

you could have spokenup about those things

but you would have had to live with

even greater repercussion after the fact

so you just kinda decided to tough it out.

That had to be difficult and miserable.

- Well, I mean the things we learn at home

sometimes serve us well throughout life

and one of the things that my parents,

especially my mom saidwas tell God on them.

I mean, get on your knees and just tattle

and then when you finish pray for them.

And then review what, areyou meeting resistance

because it's not a wise thing to do

or what's your motiveand what's your merit?

And so I would compare my motive to theirs

and feel like mine was more noble.

- [Terry] Exactly.

- And just let the Lordhandle that and move on,

study harder, move on.

- Be better, exactly and Godoften uses those hard things

in our lives to hone us- Oh, I think so.

and to prepare us.

It made you do more,go farther, be better.

So let's go back to last Apriland what actually happened

in that Southwest flightthat you were commandeering.

Let's talk about it, you had140 some people on board?

- Yes, 149.

- And just about the time as you took off

that most pilots are kind ofloosening the tie a little bit

and sitting back and sayingwe made it, we're up,

we're at, you were at32,000 some feet in the air.

- Right.- What happened?

- Well, Darren Ellisor, my first officer

and I both thought we'dbeen hit by another aircraft

that we'd had in midair- Wow.

because the jolt was so violent

and the aircraft went intoa snap roll to the left

and we both caught itand leveled the wings

and then just as quicklythere was suddenly

such a shuttering ofthe aircraft and a roar

through the aircraft thatwe couldn't focus our eyes

on anything, we couldn't hear each other

and then we couldn't breathe.

And so that was the beginning.

- So, how did you gather yourwits about you, Tammie Jo

to figure out what do tonext, smoke filled the cabin

at one point, I mean, youcan't even see the instruments

much less decide what you're gonna do.

You can't speak as you said to the copilot

so how did you communicate with each other

and how did you decide what to do next?

- Well, being isolated likethat adrenaline kicks in

and I remember thinkinggood news, bad news

and the bad news was Ididn't think everything would

stay on the aircraft forus to get it to the ground.

And that kinda led me tothe mental cliff of what if

which would be this would bethe day that I meet my maker.

And that's when I stopped the rush stopped

and I just had a calm

because I realized I wouldn'tbe meeting a stranger,

that I meet with him everyday

and so that is where I steppedaway with a calm in my heart

that I think that wasreflected in my voice

but also in just being able to think

through the many decisions thatDarren and I needed to make

to get to the runway in Philadelphia.

- They were layers deep andthey had to keep changing

with the circumstances.

What had actually happenedthat caused all of this?

- Well and we just dealtwith the symptoms for awhile.

What we didn't know had happenedwas the number one engine

had exploded and thenshredded the cowling back

so that it stayed attachedkind of like a banana peeling

and it was flailing in500 mile an hour wind.

It had also taken chunksout of the leading edge

and damaged a window which had blown out

and so that caused the roar,

that caused the rapid depressurization.

There was also just an unscriptedcombination of emergencies

that ensued, hydraulic lineswere cut, fuel lines were cut

and so we were dealing with drag

that we hadn't ever practiced dealing with

and then getting closer to the ground

we realized we didn'thave level off capability.

That the thrust from the goodengine wasn't all ours to use.

- How did you land this thing?

- Very carefully.- Yeah. (laughs)

- And truthfully with layersof experience and training

and I've been asked every once in awhile

if I felt like the Lord landed the plane.

And I said, no he hadprepared me for years,

he'd been pouring into me foryears to take care of that.

- What are the three takeaways you want people

to get from your book, Nerves of Steel?

- I would say it would behabits, heroes and hope.

Habits being what we chooseas a habit on a good day.

- You meet with the Lord everyday

and you pray before every flight.

- Probably my mostimportant habit of life.

And those are instincts and in a bad day

we have that generous gift of choice.

Heroes, no title, no equipment required,

just taking the time tosee and the effort to act

on behalf of someone else.

And last but most important, hope.

When we had a plan and a destination

and communicated that itgave our flight attendants

and passengers hope.

- You said over the loudspeaker, we're not going down,

we're going to Philadelphia.

- Right, right and I thinkthat having a destination

whether it's in an airplanethat's a rough, rough ride

or in life, that element of a destination

doesn't have to change ourcircumstances, it changes us

and that's enough.

- It's a gripping story, Nerves of Steel

is her brand new book,I wanna mention also,

there's a Nerves of Steelcoming out for young people.

- Oh yes.- In September right?

- My heart is wrapped around that one.

- What is this one now, is it--

- It's the same thing,it's got a few more stories

than what the Nerves of Steel does,

they're shorter chaptersbut it was junior high

and a junior book thatput my paths on the feet,

my feet on the path to aviation.

- Get it for your school library, folks.

Tammie Jo, thank you forbeing on the program,

what an amazing story.

- Oh thank you.- Bless you.