Sierra Hotel Blog
On June 24, 1982, British Airways Flight 009 — Speedbird 9 — lost all four engines after flying through an invisible ash plume from Mount Galunggung over the Indian Ocean. The Boeing 747 became a 300-ton glider in the dark, descending toward the sea. Through extraordinary airmanship, Captain Eric Moody and his crew restarted the engines and landed safely in Jakarta. All 262 people on board walked away without a scratch.
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In 2001, 13-year-old Boy Scout Cody Clawson became separated from his troop in Yellowstone National Park and spent a cold night alone in a cave. At daybreak he used his belt buckle as a signal mirror to flag down a low-flying helicopter. The pilot who spotted him and flew the rescue was Harrison Ford — Jackson Hole resident, licensed fixed-wing and rotary-wing pilot, and veteran SAR volunteer.
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Shot down in Vietnam, severely burned, and told he'd never fly again, SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul endured 15 major operations before returning to fly the world's fastest jet at Mach 3 and 90,000 feet. Written by aviation historian and longtime friend Cory Crowell, this is a personal account of 30 years alongside one of the most remarkable aviators who ever lived.
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On May 31, 1967, a lone USAF KC-135 Stratotanker crew commanded by Maj. John H. Casteel saved six Navy aircraft over the Gulf of Tonkin — two KA-3 Whales, two F-8 Crusaders, and two F-4 Phantoms — executing the first-ever triple air-to-air refueling in history. Running critically low on fuel themselves, the crew never considered leaving a fellow aviator behind. All four crew members received the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Mackay Trophy.
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Before he created Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry flew B-17 Flying Fortresses with the 394th Bomb Squadron in the Pacific, survived a crash on takeoff at Espiritu Santo, then flew for Pan Am — pulling survivors from a burning Clipper in the Syrian desert. The same man who gave us the USS Enterprise once flew real ones.
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