The Right Stuff in Chicago, February 25, 2025
Chuck Yeager would have been proud of the the so-far anonymous pilot of Southwest Airlines 2504.
Tom Wolfe claimed in his 1979 New Journalism masterpiece, The Right Stuff, that U.S. airline pilots tended to imitate test pilot Chuck Yeager’s Appalachian accent because famously (at least within the flying fraternity), he had the Right Stuff.
I don’t know if that’s true or not. But listening to the audio of the near miss collision yesterday at Chicago’s Midway airport in which an incompetent private Flexjet pilot taxied, against air traffic control’s instructions, across the runway on which a Southwest Airlines 737 (SWA 2504) was about to land:
the SouthWest Airlines’ pilot’s instant yet languid response was in the highest Yeager tradition:
Paywall here:
SWA 2504’s classic radio response at 1:14 after averting a collison, “Left heading 220, Southwest 2504,” sounds like his blood pressure had gone up from 70/50 to 80/60.
At 1:33, well clear of catastrophe, the SWA pilot allows himself to sound ever so slightly peeved: “How’d that happen?”
Does anybody yet know the name of the hero Southwest Airlines pilot on the Omaha to Chicago run?
Overall, American pilots are really good.
Why?
Over the last 122 years, America has developed a remarkable aerospace culture that has been the cutting edge of American global supremacy.
It’s extraordinary that not very long ago, the American Establishment, the foremost beneficiary of this world-historical accomplishment, wanted to blow this remarkable culture up …
for reasons.
My personal favorite pilot quotes:
United 232 in 1989 had a couple of good ones. A check pilot who happened to be riding as a passenger came up to help and said “We’ll have a beer when this is all done. The Captain, Al Haynes, said “Well I don’t drink, but I’ll sure as hell have one.”
Later ATC told the captain, “You’re cleared to land on any runway.” The Captain replied, “Roger. You want to be particular and make it a runway, huh?”
(The crew, despite having almost no control over the airplane aside from differential thrust with the engines, managed to land the plane and save the lives of more than half the passengers.)
1982’s British Airways 009 lost power in all of its engines after flying though a crowd of volcanic ash. Captain Eric Moody said to the passengers, “Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going. I trust you are not in too much distress.”
The pilots managed to get the engines going again, but landing was difficult as the ash had damaged the windscreen. The Captain described landing as “a bit like negotiating one’s way up a badger’s arse.” The flight engineer kissed the ground after landing and said, “The pope does it.” The Captain replied, “He flies Alitalia.”
It’s been quite a month for practical lessons in the value of competence and meritocracy.
Flexjet 560’s first exchange with ground control sounded like he was busy zipping up his fly.