Two New Mexico Women, One Harrowing Flight Leaves One Dead, One A Heroine

by Heather Cassell

The Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 was coming apart on one side due to an engine exploding, shattering a window and spraying shrapnel into the plane Tuesday, but Pilot Tammie Jo Shults was calm and steady.

One female passenger was seriously injured, and seven other passengers also suffered injuries crew reported to the cockpit.

Tammie Jo’s focus was on safely landing the plane with 149 people on board – 144 passengers and five crew members – and getting medical attention for the female passenger who was partially sucked out of the window at more than 30,000 feet in the air and other injured passengers.

“We have a part of the aircraft missing. Southwest 1380, we’re single engine,” Tammie Jo radioed to air traffic control at Philadelphia International Airport, “We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit.”

“Could you have the medical meet us there on the runway as well? We’ve got injured passengers,” she continued.

The male voice on the other end at air traffic control responded, “Injured passengers, OK. And is your airplane physically on fire?”

“No, it’s not on fire,” she replied. “But part of it is missing. They said there’s a hole and that someone went out.”

Stunned for a moment, the air traffic controller replied, “Um, I’m sorry. You said there was a hole and somebody went out?”

He quickly recovered saying it didn’t matter and it would be worked out at the airport.

The Harrowing Experience

Flight 1380 left New York City’s LaGuardia International Airport heading to Dallas Love Field, but 20 minutes into the flight the engine exploded and shattered the window, passengers described.

“There was momentary chaos. Everyone kind of descended on where this hole was. As passengers, we weren’t sure if they were trying to cover up the hole, but the plane smelled like smoke. There was ash coming through the ventilation system,” Passenger Matt Tranchin described the situation unfolding three rows ahead of him, he told ABC News WPVI in Philadelphia.

“We started dropping,” he continued. “Some of the crew couldn’t hold back their horror. And some were crying as they looked out through the open window onto the engine.”

“The plane started going back and forth as the pilot was trying to gain control of the plane again. I put my mask on and my husband and I right away grabbed on to each other and started praying,” Passenger Amanda Bourman, a mother of three, told People Magazine.

“We asked God to be with the pilot to land us safely,” she added, “and to send angels to watch over us.”

Cassie Adams, who said she was sitting “right over the engine” and immediately saw the damage saw the woman get sucked out of the window.

“Two brave men immediately responded and helped grab her and tried to pull her back in,” Cassie told ABC News.

Flight attendants and a few passengers grabbed the woman who was partially sucked out of the window brought her back into the plane while another blocked the window with his body. Passengers and nurses, who were on board the flight, attempted CPR.

“It was terrifying,” Cassie said about the plane that immediately started free falling. “Those men are heroes.”

FlightRadar24.com cataloged the plane dropped from an altitude of 31,684 feet to just about 10,000 feet in a little more than five minutes following the explosion, air masks dropped from the ceiling of the plane as passengers scrambled to put them on stifling their screams and prayed, according to media reports.

Tammie Jo regained control of the damaged plane and guided it to Philadelphia safely landing it on the ground in Philadelphia. Once she landed, thanked the control tower, “Thank you. … Thanks, guys, for the help.”

“She has nerves of steel. That lady, I applaud her,” Passenger Alfred Tumlinson told WPVI, a CNN affiliate. “I’m going to send her a Christmas card, I’m going to tell you that, with a gift certificate for getting me on the ground. She was awesome.”

“The pilot was a veteran of the Navy,” another passenger Kathy Farnan, added praising the crew telling the media outlet they knew what they were doing and kept everyone calm. “She had 32 years in — a woman. And she was very good.”

Tammie Jo came out of the cockpit as soon as she could once on the ground and checked on the passengers. She asked them if they were alright and praised and hugged everyone.

“You all did a great job. You did a very good job,” passenger Amy Serafini told WPVI.

Passenger Diana McBride Self thanked Tammie Jo for her “guidance and bravery in a traumatic situation,” on Facebook, reported the Washington Post.

“This is a true American Hero,” Diana wrote noting how Tammie Jo spoke to each passenger personally following the incident.

Fellow passengers agreed comparing Tammie Jo to Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who safely guided a US Airways plane into New York’s Hudson River in 2009, reported the Post.

The Pilot

Southwest Airlines declined to officially identify Tammie Jo as the pilot that flew the plane to safety, but family members and passengers confirmed to the media and on social media that she was the pilot.

Tammie Jo is also declined to comment on the incident when the Post reached her.

Virginia Shults, Tammie Jo’s mother-in-law, knew the moment she heard the radio transmission online it was her.

“That is Tammie Jo,” she said. “She’s a very calming person.”

Family and friends described Tammie Jo as a pioneering woman in aviation who broke barriers to fly.

A veteran of the US Navy, Tammie Jo was among the first female fighter pilots graduating from MidAmerica Nazarene University in 1983. She was among the first women to fly an F/A-18 Hornet for the Navy, Cindy Foster, a college friend, told the Kansas City Star.

Tammie Jo’s story is chronicled in “Military Fly Moms: Sharing Memories, Building Legacies, Inspiring Hope,” by Linda Maloney.

Born Tammie Jo Bonnell, she grew up on a ranch near Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico where she would watch the planes fly above her.

“Some people grow up around aviation. I grew up under it,” she said in the book. Watching the daily air show, she knew she “just had to fly.”

She was the only girl to attend an aviation lecture during her senior year of high school in 1979. The retired colonel teaching the class asked Tammie Jo, “if I was lost,” she recalled in the book.

“I mustered up the courage to assure him I was not and that I was interested in flying,” she wrote. “He allowed me to stay but assured me there were no professional women pilots.”

Yet, she found the one who spurred her to continue to take flight. In College, she met a woman who had received her Air Force wings.

“I set to work trying to break into the club,” she wrote, but the Air Force didn’t want her, and the Navy, while allowing her to apply for aviation officer candidate school, didn’t “seem to be a demand for women pilots.”

It took her a year after taking the Navy aviation exam to find a recruiter who would process her application. She attended aviation officer candidate school in Pensacola, Florida. She then went on to train squadron’s at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Texas and was an instructor pilot teaching student aviators how to fly the Navy T-2 trainer. After that, she left to fly the A-7 Corsair in Lemoore, California, yet she was shut out of flying in a combat squadron due to the combat exclusion law.

She was limited to providing electronic warfare training to Navy ships and aircraft.

However, she later became one of the first women to fly what was then the Navy’s newest fighter, the F/A-18 Hornet, but only in a support role.

She served in the Navy for a decade becoming a Navy lieutenant commander.

During her time in the Navy, she met Dean Shults, a fellow combat pilot who also became a Southwest Airlines pilot, and married him.

In 1993, she left the Navy and settled in the San Antonio area of Texas where she raised two children, a teenage son and a daughter in her early 20s, reported the Post.

“She said she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her she couldn’t,” Foster said. “She did it for herself and all women fighting for a chance.”

Tammie Jo’s brother-in-law, Gary Shults, described her to the Associated Press as a “formidable woman, as sharp as a tack.”

“My brother says she’s the best pilot he knows,” he added. “She’s a very caring, giving person who takes care of lots of people.”

Virginia told the Post she knows Tammie Jo is heartbroken over the death of the passenger, who was also from New Mexico.

“Knowing Tammie Jo, I know her heart is broken for the death of that passenger,” said Virginia, who described her daughter-in-law as a devout Christian.

The Victim

The woman who as sucked out of the window, Jennifer Riordan, 43, mom of two and vice president of community relations at Wells Fargo in Albuquerque, New Mexico, later died at a Philadelphia hospital, authorities said.

Jennifer was a pillar in her community and her family. For more than a decade, she managed the volunteer service of more than 1,000 employees since 2008 for Wells Fargo, reported USA Today.

Outside of work, she was a well-known community leader and philanthropist in Albuquerque and the Southwest region.

Jennifer volunteered at her children’s school, the Annunciation Catholic School, was a parishioner at Our Lady of the Annunciation Catholic Church, and served on several boards, including the University of New Mexico Alumni Association and the New Mexico Broadcasters Association in Albuquerque.

Jennifer received her bachelor’s degree in organizational communications from the University of New Mexico in 1999.

She held a director level position before being promoted to vice president, reported USA Today.

In a statement, Wells Fargo called her “a well-known leader who was loved and respected.”

New Mexico government officials mourned the loss of Jennifer for her family and Albuquerque.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller called her death a “tremendous and tragic loss,” in a statement April 17.

“Her leadership and philanthropic efforts made this a better place every day and she will be terribly missed. We are holding Jennifer and her family in our thoughts.”

Breanna Anderson mourned the loss of her friend Jennifer.

“Today our world lost a beautiful soul. She was beloved and admired,” said Breanna told USA Today. “A wifey who was always cheering for her hubby, praising his success and filling their home with warmth; a mother who lived for her two children, lovingly fostering their personalities, and supporting them in all their ambitions; an incredibly thoughtful friend, and an amazingly accomplished businesswoman.”

“There are thousands of us in Albuquerque and likely around the country who were touched by the life of Jennifer Riordan and honored to call her a friend. Please keep her family in your hearts and prayers,” she continued.

Jennifer is survived by two children and her husband, Michael Riordan, who was once the chief operating officer for the city of Albuquerque, reported CNN affiliate KOAT.

“We are so appreciative of the outpouring of support from family, friends and our community,” Jennifer family said in a statement Tuesday.

“Jennifer’s vibrancy, passion and love infused our community and reached across our country. Her impact on everything and everyone she touched can never be fully measured.”

“But foremost, she is the bedrock of our family. She and Mike wrote a love story unlike any other. Her beauty and love is evident through her children. We are so appreciative of the outpouring of support from family, friends and our community.”

They asked for privacy as they grieve their loss of Jennifer.

“Our family and friends need this time to both grieve and celebrate Jennifer’s impact on us all. In her memory — please remember to always be kind, loving, caring, and sharing.”

Seven other passengers were minorly injured during the incident and treated at a hospital in Philadelphia, according to media reports.

Southwest’s Response

Southwest Airlines Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly called Jennifer’s death a “tragic loss.”

“This is a sad day, and our hearts go out to the family and loved ones of the deceased customer,” Gary told reporters during a press conference Tuesday.

In a statement following the press conference, Gary said the victim’s family are the airline’s “immediate and primary concern and we will do all that we can to support them during this difficult time and the difficult days ahead.” 

“I’m immensely grateful there are no other reports of injuries but truly this is a tragic loss,” he added. “Please join us in offering thoughts and prayers and support to all of those affected by today’s tragedy.”

NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt described the emergency as engine failure. The Federal Aviation Administration said the crew reported damage to the main body of the plane, an engine and a window.

In a statement, Boeing expressed its “deepest condolences” to the victim’s family.

Southwest Flight 1380 was the first accidental fatality on a domestic flight in nine years, the National Transportation Safety Board told the media. The last incident accidental domestic airline fatality was when Colgan 3407 crashed near Buffalo, New York, killing all 49 on board and a person on the ground in 2009.

This is the first time a passenger died in-flight aboard Southwest Airlines 51-year history due to an aircraft incident, reported USA Today.

However, a similar incident resulting in an engine failure mid-flight happened aboard a Southwest flight en route from New Orleans to Orlando in August 2016, reported People Magazine. The magazine reported that shrapnel from the engine left a hole above the wing. The plane landed safely in Pensacola, Florida with no reported injuries.

The Boeing 737 was inspected April 15 and no issues with the plane or engine were reported at the time, Gary told reporters, describing the plane as the “workhorse of the airline industry.”

The engine that failed had gone through 40,000 cycles and it had been 10,000 cycles since its last overhaul, he added.

Engines are typically overhauled after 30,000 cycles, he explained.

Gary, who started Southwest Airlines in 1994 and has been a pilot for well over a decade, commended the pilot and the crew describing them as “very experienced,” reported ABC News.

“They did their jobs superbly today,” Kelly added.

The NTSB and the FAA still are investigating, but initial evidence found overnight showed “metal fatigue,” according to the NTSB. During a late night press conference, Robert told reporters that one of the engine’s fan blades was separated and missing. The blade was separated at the point where it would come into the hub and there was evidence of metal fatigue, reported ABC News Philadelphia.

Boeing said it is providing technical help to the investigation, with which Southwest is cooperating.

The runway was closed for more than two hours before reopening.

The NTSB has asked witnesses with videos or images to contact the agency directly via email.

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