Cockpit Recording Portrays Calm, Professional Flight Pilot
ABC News broke the "news" Thursday
that last month's incident involving a Midwest Airlines MD-81
chartered for Illinois senator and Democratic presidential
candidate Barack Obama was an actual emergency... but upon
listening to the tapes, ANN was most impressed by the cool
professionalism of the plane's flight crew in handling the
crisis.
As ANN reported, the plane encountered
thunderstorms shortly after takeoff from Chicago on July 7, on a
flight to Charlotte, NC. The aircraft encountered turbulence --
described by ABC as "an abnormally large dip" -- after which the
plane's crew reported difficulties controlling the aircraft's
pitch.
The crew initiated a descent from FL320, and diverted to St.
Louis. The crew regained full control authority as the plane
descended out of 10,000 feet, and was able to bring the plane in
for a routine landing at STL. The National Transportation Safety
Board later found the aircraft's aft tailcone emergency slide had
partially deployed, and chafed against the elevator control
cables.
The FAA initially made a point of stating there was "no
emergency" declared in the incident... but ATC recordings obtained
by ABC show one of the plane's pilots declared an emergency 41
seconds after first telling controllers of the problem with
"limited pitch authority."
"At this time we would like to declare an emergency and also
have CFR [crash equipment] standing by in St. Louis," said the
Midwest pilot in a calm, professional manner.
In fact... despite what had to be going through his mind as the
flight crew worked to control the aircraft, that pilot never
revealed any outward trace of anxiety in his communications with
ATC, or his passengers. When asked which runway he'd prefer at St.
Louis, the pilot replied coolly "Well, which one is the
longest?"
The pilot also told ATC "....just for informational purposes, we
have Senator Obama on board the aircraft and his campaign," noting
there are "51 souls onboard," as well as telling controllers of the
plane's fuel load. He then notified his passengers of the
situation... without showing any fear, or patronizing them...
saying the flight crew was experiencing "a little bit of
controllability issue in terms of our ability to control the
aircraft in the pitch, which is the nose up and nose down
mode."
A trace of relief was evident in the pilot's voice, though, when
he told controllers the crew had regained full control as the plane
descended. "Ah, sir, we had a pitch authority problem," the pilot
tells ATC. "Now that we've come down to a lower altitude, it seems
to have rectified itself. We do have pitch control of the aircraft
at this time."
After the ATC tape surfaced this week, FAA spokeswoman
Elizabeth Isham Cory told ABC "We later learned there was an
emergency declared." But whether or not the situation was an
emergency isn't the real story here, of course... but rather the
fact that if you listened to the pilot's vocal tone, you'd have
never guessed the seriousness of the situation.
And to that, we say nice job.