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<\/div>\n\u201cYou just realize, obviously, we’re at the front end of the aircraft, so we’re in charge,\u201d Shults, the captain who landed the plane, said in an exclusive interview with ABC News\u2019 \u201c20\/20.\u201d \u201cI don’t remember anything other than starting to think through what the plan is. And it worked well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYour instincts kick in, you know, stuff that you’ve prepared for, you know, ever since you started flying \u2026 and this training just takes over,\u201d Ellisor, the flight\u2019s first officer, told \u201c20\/20\u201d exclusively. \u201cWas there some of that fear? There probably was deep down, but I, you know, pushed it away.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Watch the full story on ABC News’ “20\/20” on Friday, May 11 at 10 p.m. ET.<\/strong><\/p>\n The pilots were forced to land Southwest Flight 1380 at Philadelphia International Airport last month when it experienced engine failure about 20 minutes after takeoff.<\/p>\n The Boeing 737, which was en route from New York City\u2019s LaGuardia Airport to Texas’ Dallas Love Field, was carrying 144 passengers and five crew members at the time, officials said.<\/p>\n Shults, a U.S. Navy veteran, and Ellisor, a 44-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran, had just met each other the previous day while piloting flights together. Both said they\u2019d flown planes out of LaGuardia countless times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIt was really like any other flying day,\u201d Shults, 56, said.<\/p>\n Shults\u2019 husband Dean is also a Southwest pilot and was supposed to be the captain on Flight 1380 that day.<\/p>\n \u201cI traded for the trip with my husband. I\u2019m not trading with him anymore,\u201d Shults said, laughing.<\/p>\n Shults said her husband offered to fly a different flight so that she could make their son\u2019s track meet.<\/p>\n \u201cDean, being the amazing husband he is, said, \u2018You go to the track meet, I’ll switch and take your trip.\u2019 And so that’s why I was on the trip,\u201d Shults recalled.<\/p>\n As the plane left New York, Shults was at the controls while taxiing, while Ellisor was in charge of the aircraft during takeoff.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/div> \u201cEverything was exactly the way it’s supposed to be, just rolling down the runway and when you get to a certain speed, you take off,\u201d Ellisor said. \u201cAnd then the hardest part was her job, talking to all the air traffic controllers ’cause there’s a bunch of airplanes out there talking, and everything was very routine, and that’s just all what we do day, after day, after day.\u201d<\/p>\n But as the plane passed through at about 32,000 feet, Shults and Ellisor felt the first signs of trouble.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had a large bang and a rapid decompression. 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 that was shaking everything. And that all kind of happened all at once,\u201d said Ellisor.<\/p>\n \u201cMy first thoughts were actually, \u2018Oh, here we go.\u2019 Just because it seems like a flashback to some of the Navy flying that we had done,\u201d Shults said. \u201cAnd we had to use hand signals [and some yelling], because it was loud, and it was just hard to communicate for a lot of different reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n Because of the high vibration of the plane, Ellisor and Shults say they thought it might have been a seizure of the engine\u2019s air.<\/p>\n \u201cIt means the engine just stops rotating and spinning. And it was very disorienting to have all these things happen at once. And I actually couldn’t make heads or tails of what was going on, you know, looking at the engine instruments, trying to figure things out,\u201d Ellisor said. \u201cIt’s disorienting for a second before you grab everything and start flying again.\u201d<\/p>\n They quickly realized it was something else when there was rapid depressurization and the need for oxygen masks.<\/p>\n \u201cThe seizure of the aircraft would not cause a rapid decompressions, so we knew that something extraordinary had happened pretty quickly,\u201d said Shults. \u201cWe would have turned to Philadelphia anyway and started coming down, we just wouldn’t have tried to get down so quickly. But getting down to richer oxygen was certainly an important task.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Shults communicated with air traffic control that they wanted to land in Philadelphia, after realizing they needed somewhere with runway length and ground support.<\/p>\n \u201cDarren handled it beautifully and not trying to force the aircraft to stay on altitude and return to that heading, which is kind of a normal pilot reaction, or can be to get back on course,\u201d Shults said. \u201cHe followed the aircraft and let it stay in a nice controlled flight status. And it was a bit of a rough shudder until we slowed it down a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n Ellisor then switched controls over to Shults, so she, as the captain, could make the landing in Philadelphia as per Southwest protocol during unusual landings.<\/p>\n Shults said, \u201cAt that point, we really just — because of the noise and different things — we had to be flexible and just use things that we had learned in previous training. And we kind of just split the cockpit and I did flying and some of the outside talking, and he took care of everything else.\u201d<\/p>\n They also had to put on oxygen masks, with Ellisor putting his on first while Shults kept a hand on the controls.<\/p>\n \u201cThen we had some switchology to do to be able to communicate through the mask. And then it was really just back to flying. Aviate, communicate, navigate,\u201d Shults said laughing.<\/p>\n A few minutes before landing, the pilots were finally got in touch with the flight attendants, who informed them that there were injured passengers and that a window had shattered.<\/p>\n \u201c[The flight attendants] let us know that we would need EMS immediately when we landed,\u201d Shults said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when we decided it was time to go land,\u201d Ellisor said.<\/p>\n Ellisor and Shults say when they knew there were injuries, they decided on a short-approach landing, as opposed to the long-approach landing that they first asked air traffic control for, so they could get on the ground even more quickly than they’d have liked to.<\/p>\n With a window out, the pilots said they also changed the way they flew the plane.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously, that would mean that the passengers [have] some fast air going through the cabin, so, you know, we just did our best to make it a descent without the high airspeed,\u201d said Shults.<\/p>\n The two said they were never worried that the plane would land any other way but safely.<\/p>\n \u201cAs long as you have altitude and ideas, you\u2019re okay. And we had both,\u201d Shults said with a laugh.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was an Air Force landing, not a typical, hard Navy landing,\u201d Ellisor joked. \u201cBut Tammie Jo, she did a fantastic job, considering the condition of the aircraft and the situation it was. She made a great landing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe kind of knew just from the great training that we’ve been given, whether it was military or from Southwest. We just took the knowledge that we had, pooled it, and used our system knowledge as well, and decided the flap setting and things,\u201d said Shults.<\/p>\n After landing, Ellisor and Shults said they don\u2019t remember saying anything to each other because they were still busy on the job getting their post-landing tasks done.<\/p>\n Shults then walked through the plane to check on the passengers and the flight attendants at the back.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mother had told me, \u2018If I’m flying, I want to know what’s going on.\u2019 So I thought I would treat them like I would treat my own family,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ellisor said, \u201cI stood at the front of the aircraft with two passengers that were up there — that I didn’t know why they were standing up there — but as the passengers came back, as we were getting all the passengers off, they hugged all three of us and were thanking all three of us. So I knew those two gentlemen had done something extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n As he walked off the plane, Ellisor called his wife Jennifer.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to tell her a couple times, \u2018I’m okay, but there’s been an accident.\u2019 And she was pretty upset,\u201d Ellisor said. When he was finally reunited with her, Ellisor said, \u201cIt was a lot of hugging and not a lot of words for a while. Just holding each other for quite a while in the entryway as I came through the door.\u201d<\/p>\n Shults said she texted her family, including her 18-year-old son Marshall, who has his private pilot license.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I told [Marshall] that I’d landed single engine in Philly safe on the ground, his immediate text back was, \u2018That’s why Southwest gives you two,\u2019 so I didn’t get the sympathy you did,\u201d she joked to Ellisor.<\/p>\n![\"PHOTO:](\"https:\/\/s.abcnews.com\/images\/US\/southwest-pilots-02-abc-jrl-180509_hpEmbed_18x13_992.jpg\")
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