Captain Shults calmly relayed details about the crisis to air traffic controllers, and passengers commended her handling of the situation. Friends at Mrs Shults’ church in Boerne, Texas, about 30 miles northwest of San Antonio, said they were not surprised after listening to the recording and reading media reports about her actions. “That’s how she’s wired.” Mrs Shults was commissioned into the Navy in 1985 and reached the rank of lieutenant commander, said Commander Ron Flanders, the spokesman for Naval Air Forces in San Diego. “Obviously it was frustrating,” said Ms Maloney, who became among the first women to join a combat military flying squadron and was deployed to the Arabian Gulf. Mrs Shults’ brother-in-law, Gary Shults, said her husband also is a Southwest pilot and told him she made the emergency landing.

Source: Irish Independent April 19, 2018 03:45 UTC