Hero pilot Tammie Jo Shults revealed new details about deadly Southwest Flight 1380 she brought in for an emergency landing in Philadelphia after one of its engines exploded 20 minutes after takeoff last month.
In her first interview since then, sitting alongside co-pilot Darren Ellisor in a clip for Friday's 20/20 exclusive interview on ABC, she recounted the harrowing experience that took place on April 17 during the flight from New York City to Dallas, People magazine reported.
“My first thoughts were actually, ‘Oh, here we go’ — just because it seemed like a flashback to some of the Navy flying that we had done," said Shults, who was among the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. military.
Ellisor said they were passing through about 32,000 feet when they suddenly heard a loud bang and then started experiencing a rapid decompression, which caused the aircraft to shake.
“The aircraft yawed and banked to the left a little over 40 degrees and we had a very severe vibration from the number one engine," he said, per People.
Shults said she had to use hand signals to communicate with her co-pilot "because it was loud, and it was just hard to communicate for a lot of different reasons,” Time reported.
Shults has been praised for keeping calm and landing Flight 1380 afterv the engine blew out, causing shrapnel to smash a window and damage the fuselage.
One passenger, Jennifer Riordan, was partially sucked through the window. She later died from extensive injuries.
Despite all the chaos aboard, Shults remained level-headed and got the plane down on a nearby runway at what was described as a very rapid descent, CNN reported.
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