From .
This week鈥檚 deadly Southwest Airlines incident marked the first passenger death in U.S. commercial aviation since 2009. A mother of two was killed when she was partially pulled from the plane by decompression forces after a window was shattered by shrapnel from an exploding engine.
But the terrible incident also brought attention to a woman who鈥檚 being hailed as a hero. Pilot not only landed the plane safely with just one engine, but did so with so much focus and calm that she even punctuated her emergency radio messages with the customary signoff: 鈥済ood day.鈥�
is a former captain for Northwest Airlines, the author of the book , and a member of the . She says she was thrilled to see a woman pilot , even though the circumstances were tragic.
鈥淚 was thrilled for a couple reasons,鈥� she says. 鈥淥ne, because kids nowadays don鈥檛 identify women as being pilots, and having someone in the spotlight who鈥檚 a lady who does a great job just points out that it can happen and does happen and isn鈥檛 really that much of a surprise.鈥�
Women have been flying planes for over 100 years, though some people still aren鈥檛 on board with the idea.
鈥淚 think one reason is they have the wrong impression that women don鈥檛 have the temperment for it,鈥� McCullough says. 鈥淏ecause they think, 鈥極h, they鈥檙e going to cry in an emergency. They鈥檙e going to fall apart.鈥� And obviously we don鈥檛. We handle families and airplanes and anything else that鈥檚 thrown at us. And I think a lot of it is misperception, but I think the other half is that we are still seeing a lot of harassment in this field. Men do not want women in their airplane.鈥�
She says she encountered passengers who were uneasy with a woman pilot, too.
鈥淵ou鈥檇 get a lot of surprised faces,鈥� she says. 鈥淓specially in Japan. In the beginning, I was the fourth woman at Northwest. And some of the men in Japan would get off the plane when they found out there was a woman up there.鈥�
In one instance, she even reassured Muhammad Ali that the flight would be safe.
鈥淢uhammad Ali said, 鈥榃hoa, now I am scared. Are you flying this?鈥� and I said, 鈥楧on鈥檛 worry. There are two men up there. I鈥檓 sure they can take over,鈥欌�� McCullough says.
McCullough says Tammie Jo Shults鈥� heroic landing is unlikely to change the number of women pilots.
鈥淢ost of my friends that are retired with me have been in the field 40 years. And we鈥檙e still at five percent,鈥� she says. 鈥淯ntil we reach a tipping point, which is supposedly 20 percent, I don鈥檛 think we鈥檒l see much in the way of a change.鈥�
Written by Angela Bonilla.
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