In the second episode of the Safer Skies video podcast, Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University’s Boeing Center for Aviation and Aerospace Safety (BCAAS) takes listeners into the flight deck with former U.S. Navy fighter pilot and airline captain Tammie Jo Shults, who averted tragedy by wrestling severely crippled Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 to the ground.

Shults joins podcast host, safety expert and Boeing Center executive director Robert Sumwalt for a candid conversation about her most powerful lessons on leadership, aviation safety and overcoming life’s biggest obstacles.

Shults, who served as one of the first female pilots for the U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 Hornet, explores how her childhood experiences sparked an interest in aviation and how she navigated becoming a fighter pilot at a time when women were underestimated and underrepresented.

Shults also brings listeners onto the flight deck as she and her crew safely landed Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 after an engine exploded at high altitude, causing multiple system failures and rapid depressurization. Shults discusses how the team overcame tremendously difficult conditions and drew on training, instinct and judgment to land Flight 1380 in Philadelphia and save 148 lives.

Shults retired from airline flying in 2020 and is the author of “Nerves of Steel: How I Followed My Dreams, Earned My Wings, and Faced My Greatest Challenge,” a national bestseller.

“Safer Skies offers vital insight into aviation safety practices, and I am honored to share my story with listeners,” said Shults. “I hope my experiences help future aviators build their own nerves of steel.”

The Safer Skies video podcast offers rare insight into the world of aviation and aerospace safety. Each episode spotlights the experiences of industry experts like Shults, as well as the practices that ensure the safety of all who fly and the ideas that are shaping the future of flight.

“Tammie Jo is a model of resilience and calm under pressure for pilots the world over,” Sumwalt said. “We are pleased to welcome her to Safer Skies and to highlight the skills and mindset that helped her and her first officer safely land Flight 1380.”

Watch the second episode of the Safer Skies video podcast now.