Southwest Airlines pilot pushed Navy boundaries for flying

BOERNE, Texas (AP) - APRIL 19, 2018 — Tammie Jo Shults was determined to "break into the club" of male military aviators.

In this image provided by the U.S. Navy, Lt. Tammie Jo Shults, one of the first women to fly Navy tactical aircraft, poses in front of an F/A-18A with Tactical Electronics Warfare Squadron (VAQ) 34 in 1992. After leaving active duty in early 1993, Shults served in the Navy Reserve until 2001. Shults was the pilot of the Southwest plane that made an emergency landing on April 17, 2018, after an engine explosion.Thomas P. Milne/U.S. Navy via APOne of the first female fighter pilots in the U.S. Navy, Shults flew training missions as an enemy pilot during Operation Desert Storm, while working with other women to see a rule excluding them from combat flights repealed.

Twenty-five years later, Shults was at the controls of the Dallas-bound Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 Tuesday when it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia after one of the engines on the Boeing 737 exploded while the plane was traveling 500 mph (800 kph) at 30,000 feet (9144 m) with 149 people on board.

Shrapnel hit the plane and passengers said they had to rescue a woman who was being blown out of a damaged window. The woman later died of blunt force trauma to her head, neck and torso.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators examine damage to the engine of the Southwest Airlines plane that made an emergency landing at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. The Southwest Airlines jet blew the engine at 32,000 feet and got hit by shrapnel that smashed a window, setting off a desperate scramble by passengers to save a woman from getting sucked out. She later died, and seven others were injured.NTSB via APShults calmly relayed details about the crisis to air traffic controllers, and passengers commended her handling of the situation.

"Everybody is talking about Tammie Jo and how cool and calm she was in a crisis, and that's just Tammie Jo," said Rachel Russo, a friend from Shults' church in Boerne, Texas, about 30 miles (48 km) northwest of San Antonio. "That's how she's wired."

Shults and the other pilot on board, First Officer Darren Ellisor, said in a statement Wednesday that they were simply doing their jobs.

A Southwest Airlines plane sits on the runway at the Philadelphia International Airport after it made an emergency landing in Philadelphia, on Tuesday, April 17, 2018. The Federal Aviation Administration says the flight from New York to Dallas made an emergency landing after the crew reported damage to one of the engines, as well as the fuselage and at least one window.AP Photo/Corey Perrine"On behalf of the entire Crew, we appreciate the outpouring of support from the public and our coworkers as we all reflect on one family's profound loss," the two pilots said, adding that their "hearts are heavy."

Shults was commissioned into the Navy in 1985 and reached the rank of lieutenant commander, said Commander Ron Flanders, spokesman for Naval Air Forces in San Diego.

She was among the few to learn to fly the F/A-18 Hornet, a single-seat jet and the Navy's premier strike fighter aircraft.

In this April 27, 1988 photo provided by Rob "Shack" Bennett, LCDR USN (ret), U.S. Navy instructor pilot, Tammie Jo Shults explains a flight maneuver to aviators at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Texas, with squadron VT-26. Shults is being lauded as a hero in a harrowing emergency landing on Tuesday, April 17, 2018 after a passenger was partially blown out of her airliner's damaged fuselage. She is also being hailed for her pioneering role in a career where she has been one of the few women at the controls.Rob Bennett via APWomen aviators were excluded from combat missions until the month after Shults got off active duty in March 1993, but Flanders said Shults flew during Operation Desert Storm trainings as an aggressor enemy pilot. Flanders said that Shults helped "male pilots hone their skills."

"Obviously it was frustrating," said Veteran Navy combat aviator Linda Maloney, who became among the first women to join a combat military flying squadron and was deployed to the Arabian Gulf. "We go through the same training that the guys do, and our hope was the Navy would allow us to fly in combat at some point."

Shults was featured in Maloney's book "Military Fly Moms" along with the stories and photos of 69 other women U.S. military veterans.
In the book, Shults wrote about her determination to "break into the club" of male military aviators.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt briefs reporters at National Airport in in Arlington, Va., Tuesday, April 17, 2018, on the Southwest Airlines plane incident in Philadelphia.AP Photo/Susan Walsh"There did not seem to be a demand for women pilots," she said, adding that her Hornet flight training squadron did not share her commander's "open-mindedness about flying with women."

Russo and Staci Thompson, who has known Shults for about 20 years and was nanny to her two children when they were small, said she "loved" her military career but has alluded to frustrations and challenges that came with it.

They also said she embraced those experiences to make her stronger and guide her into a role as a mentor to young female pilots or girls thinking about a military career.

"She learned a lot about overcoming things as a woman in a male-dominated field," Russo said.

Shults grew up in a New Mexico ranch near Holloman Air Force Base, and was a 1983 graduate of MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas, where she earned degrees in biology and agribusiness.

Her husband, Dean Shults, also is a Southwest pilot.

"She's a formidable woman, as sharp as a tack," said Gary Shults, a dentist in San Antonio. "My brother says she's the best pilot he knows."
___
Schmall reported from Fort Worth, Texas. Associated Press writers Adam Kealoha Causey in Oklahoma City, Ben Finley in Norfolk, Virginia, and Terry Wallace and business writer David Koening in Dallas contributed to this story.