A nation must think before it acts.
When I heard the story of Southwest Airlines Flight 1380’s emergency landing, I suddenly remembered the moment of eerie silence when an engine-fire indicator lit up in my jet’s cockpit. The small, amber light glowed amid a panel of dark buttons, knobs and switches — and I froze.
A second later, after catching the movement of the instructor pilot to my left, I swiftly snapped the air mask on my helmet over my nose and mouth, tightened the harness holding me into my ejection seat and keyed the radio to begin procedures for an emergency landing. Once safely on the ground, the engine’s melted fuel lines confirmed it was about 10 seconds from exploding midair.