By David Futrelle
A lot of people are pretty impressed with Tammie Jo Shults, the pilot who guided Southwest Airlines flight 1380 to a safe landing in Philadelphia on Tuesday after one of the plane’s engines exploded in mid-air, displaying a remarkable calm in the face of potential disaster in the audio recordings of her conversations with air traffic controllers that have gone viral on YouTube.
But not everyone is impressed. If you pick your way through the comments on the Daily Mail about the incident, you will find, alongside the hosannas, more than a few comments from disgruntled men angry that Shults has been declared a hero for “just doing her job.” Some Mail readers aren’t even sure she did that.
“A woman pilot?” one skeptic asked. “I don’t think so, bet she had a man in there helping, advising on procedure, doing the difficult bits.”
Another Mail reader insisted that Shultz simply couldn’t have been piloting the plane, because according to him it would have been against regulations. “I am a qualified commercial pilot and can advise you all that female pilots are prohibited from driving planes in emergency situations,” he declared. “The Global FAA does not allow it because women are prone to hysterics and cannot keep calm under pressure.”
Sure, buddy. And I’m a commercial pilot of the monkeys flying out of my ass.
Over on Gab, the Twitter alternative for Nazis and other unpleasant people, some greeted the news of Shults’ heroism with jokes and complaints.
But the most extraordinary response on Gab came from a woman who thought Shults was a hero — but remained convinced that she shouldn’t have been allowed to fly in the Navy in the first place.
Naturally, the fellow in the Men Going Their Own Way subreddit have their own opinions about Shults, very few of them positive. One commenter blamed her for the death of a passenger who had a heart attack after the explosion broke a window and depressurized the cabin.
![rocketman1899[S] 5 points 23 hours ago* I don't know, a dead passenger, makes her less of a hero to me. I mean for all we know she could have over spun that engine, causing it to fly apart. Either way she is not a "Hero", at best she did her job. Just like countless men before that never were given that title because they didn't have a vagina.](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cyfrvgtuibhnjok.png?resize=470%2C465&ssl=1)
Thanks for your insights on heroism and responsibility, dude sitting on his ass posting on Reddit.
Several commenters, unsurprisingly, used the news as an opportunity to talk shit about women in general.
In recent days, this last guy has spent many hours on Reddit complaining about “lazy and entitled” female dentists, warning his fellow MGTOWs of the perils of standing behind women in lines, and sniffing that an attractive women with a bit of a belly is “repulsive.” But apparently his life is so difficult and dangerous that an exploding jet engine doesn’t count as a “real emergency.”
What a man, what a man, what a man, what a really crap man.
Today is walkout.
I forgot until I was in my classroom. Then my professor didn’t show up.
Hopefully, the prof of my other class today understands why I won’t be there.
It’s not a good idea for me to actively protest–I need to save emotional energy to deal with my mother. But…hopefully.
Would this be a good moment to send the Night Witches after these guys?
@SinkableJohn – thanks for the recc of Atomic Robo. Just started reading it at my desk and it looks like a keeper!
Redsilkphoenix said
That’s my understanding; every aviation mishap gets investigated. This is just these fellows putting on a ritual display of ignorance.
Another one is the guy that made the crack about her injuring and killing a bunch of people when she backed the plane into the hangar. In any airport that handles a lot of flights, planes get towed pretty much everywhere except to and from the runway (even though they can reverse engines to create reverse thrust.) Using jet engines where there are lots of people working is really unsafe!
Everything, EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING is negative to these people.
It must be awful to live in such a constant state of malaise.
Men are the original “Mary Sue’s”.
Dude, the flight attendant giving you your first pilotwings sticker when you were ten doesn’t count as certification.
@ Moon_custafer
And now I have that Sabaton song playing uncontrollably through my head.
So, thank you!
This recording is chilling:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnSizWZVyD4
Both pilots are pretty OK when they’re just dealing with engine out, possible engine fire, and (they don’t mention it but you can hear the oxygen masks) lost cabin pressure. That’s just an emergency, they train for that all the time. They’re obviously happier when the engine fire goes away, because those don’t have a good prognosis.
Then she reports that a passenger went out the window and her voice just about cracks. The copilot takes over comms right then, obviously shaken himself (he’s speaking very quietly). The tower clearly has an oh-shit moment, then says “that doesn’t matter” as a mind trick to get himself and the pilots back on track with the emergency landing.
That works and they are back to getting the job done from then on.
I would much rather watch the ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ episode on Mayday than Clint’s movie any day. But seriously, have these idiots never watched a Mayday episode?!
Only ironically.
And if the plane had crashed because the shrapnel had severed the hydraulics and couldn’t be controlled, then according to these yahoos it’d still be her fault. 😛 I suppose they consider the male pilots of planes which suffer similar accidents to be cucks.
http://siouxcityjournal.com/special-section/cut-hydraulic-lines-left-crew-with-no-flight-control/article_57e0d435-d356-5e54-afa6-518dcc05df58.html
Mayday? That sounds communist!
“Dressed for the occasion!”
@Moggie LOL!
@Johanna
I’ve been thinking of starting Atomic Robo for over a decade, myself, but never read past the first preview. Which is a shame, I read the author’s first famous webcomic, 8-bit Theater, since the beginning back in high school and got his epic parody superhero novel Nuklear Age in both soft cover and digital form when I was in college.
Ah, the MRA world where nobody praises pilots who are good at emergency landings. Who is this Sully who is mentioned in the comments? I mean, nobody praised him for doing his job … oh, wait, they did.
More kudos to Captain Shults from us!
My friends came over for drinks, and all three of us are mechanical engineers, so we could go on at length here 🙂
In fact, I could talk about my heroic day!
But first, while I’m composing those thoughts in my head, let’s see if I can get a vid to post here, you can imagine this song in your head while reading about my feats of navigation, logistics, and electro mechanical issues, today.
@Moon_custafer, I wish we could send the Strike Witches after them. Particularly Sakamoto and Lucchini.
OK….
To start with today,
My car. Has electrical issues. Which no one can figure out, and have in fact gave up on. My latest guess is something with the fuel injectors. Shop that worked on it guessed ignition sensor on the cam shaft. This did not correct the problem. And may also point to some fuel injection issue.
I don’t know. Is not the alternator nor belt. So they said. If I start taking this thing apart….
Which I won’t be doing because I don’t have any tools. Some friends and neighbors do and now that the weather’s better…
Side note, today is the 6 month anniversary of my mom’s passing 🙁
But I have the idea that she would want me to feel better now, and it is a nice day too, in fact the weather guy just said that it was the warmest day since October.
Anyway, please forgive me if I ramble on here, it takes my mind off anyway.
And I completed my mission successfully! I can get the car running, I fear turning it off. Hey, does anyone remember the older cars and the old school way of getting them going with a screwdriver in the ignition? Or hanging wires twisted together? o0
My mission: Gas up car. This was the trickiest part because I would have to shut it off. Everything else has to be carefully planned too. I can’t turn the thing off. Wherever I go, I have to leave it running.
This causes more logistical planning. Where can I go to get in and out fast? And when? Times of less traffic and shoppers. Should I ask someone if they’re going to the store? You don’t want to be a pain in the ass to friends. Some might be in the same boat as you, car’s in the shop or has issues. Some may not have a car at all (urban area).
You’re forced to be creative and I have, in the past, gotten around with no car at all. On foot and public transport. You can’t go everywhere that way though. Bus, maybe. All that becomes a logistical nightmare. Been there, done that.
Doing it halfway now since the car is yet hinky. It runs, I can go some places. And plan, in the case of shopping, that carefully too, because you don’t want to use the car too much. Make a list.
I needed allergy medicine, mostly. And some other stuff. I carefully planned everything out, gassed up the car right away, went out early when I knew there’d be less traffic, carried on (after saying to car: PLEASE start!) to a store where I had made out the list according to what aisle each product was in, chose a parking spot in the back where I could leave the car run.
And then did some fast ninja shopping, don’t want to let it run too long!
I was as cool as a cucumber too! Did not panic. Was waylaid in the store by a woman who decided to talk to me. OK, never hurts to be polite, pass a few words with someone, you never know who you might meet, too. And this woman kind of reminded me of my mom 🙂
She was holding a small bottle of diet Pepsi and wondering whether to get it. I was loading up my cart with Faygo. You heard me right 😀
The Juggalos are onto something here, this is good pop! 🙂
She said she was getting a bottle of that for her son, some other flavor, I pointed at the diet cola I was getting and said that, to me, it tastes the way diet Pepsi used to taste, and it’s really good. And you get a much larger bottle, for $1 too.
She decided to try one. I know she’ll like it too, because it’s good pop. So I even squeezed in a little “public service” there too.
I was able to get everything on my list, at this shop, which is most easily reached by car, and the car was ok on the way home. The battery light did come on again. Sigh.
But I did it! 🙂
Of course no where near as nerve wracking as landing a disabled plane. I, and my pals here, can come up with plenty of harrowing car tales.
We will meditate on those, maybe come up with a “best of” compilation.
So here’s a woman who saved men and boys lives and the very men and boys who complain that women don’t care about them and only care about themselves and other women are not thanking her for saving the lives of their own brethren?
Hey I’m not a mechanic or anything but it’s my understanding that it’s not terribly dangerous to have your car running while it refuels.
There’s a slight danger if the spark plugs are so damaged that they’re like actively sparking outside the engine but other than that it’s not that big a deal.
If it were, you wouldn’t be able to drive your car up next to someone who was pumping gas.
@ Binjabreel,
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, I question it too. I am still fearful to do it.
Logistics wise, I made sure to get enough gas today so I won’t have to keep gassing it up. And it’s either solve this issue or sell or trade in the thing. I am contemplating this all.
I can get around enough on foot and public transport too. Which is a big plus.
The worst “Keep your grip” car stories….
# 1 has to go to Miss T here, involves an old VW Scirocco.
No “power” anything. All of that failed. Also shocks and struts. And then the transmission “rotated”, because most bolts fell out (had four, was down to one), and the car had to be launched in second gear.
Also burned oil, losing compression. Several electrical fires. Drivers side door fell apart.
Clutch? “I can drive it without a clutch”. That went.
How in the hell was this car still operational?
Told us tales of driving this thing, no power anything, no clutch, had to launch from 2nd gear, try to hold door closed, at the same time, and “it was like driving a tank.”
This has got to be #1 of our “car tales”. She’s lucky, this sounds extremely dangerous.
# 1 in crappy, beat, POS cars. “Save up your $ for a sports car”.
Exactly! Potentially wreck yourself even WORSE!
And these types claim women don’t understand tech or mechanical things 😀
@kupo:
Never until now…but even for a complete non-gun-owner/expert, that was hee-larious! Whoever this guy is, he’s not even a mall cop…but he’s sure an eager wannabe. A veritable Paul Blarticus. Who knew that shopping centres had their very own dedicated SWAT teams?
In defence of the Daily Mail comment section (mercy me I never thought I would say that in my entire life) the misogynistic comments have all been downvoted to death and the responses have been absolutely hilariously brutal!
And I had a natural gas leak at home with all kinds of appliances and open flames and my house never exploded. You actually need really specific conditions (such as the ratio of air/gas) to explode anything (including gasoline vapors), if and when you do, FWOOOM. 😉
Not a mechanic, but I think my biggest concern would be possibly damaging the EVAP (emissions) system, or at the very least throwing a check engine light. (Which *should* clear itself after you put the gas cap back on and drive the car around for a few days). I just really hate looking at check engine lights, even if I know they’re bullshit EVAP codes, because I always worry that something really damaging to the engine will go wrong that I won’t know about because there’s already a check engine light on.