Americans everywhere are still shocked at the tragedy that took place on a Southwest Airlines flight on Tuesday.

Flying from New York City to Dallas, Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 was carrying 149 people when an engine exploded, sending shrapnel into the window of the plane. Though one woman, passenger Jennifer Riordan, was killed from the shrapnel, the death toll could have been much higher were it not for the “nerves of steel” of the pilot, Tammie Jo Shults.

As the plane dropped 20,000 feet in less than five minutes, Shults, a former Navy fighter pilot, remained calm. The first woman in the U.S. military to ever fly a fighter jet, Shults nonchalantly informed air traffic controllers that her plane was now a single engine aircraft and she needed permission to land immediately.

“We have part of the aircraft missing, so we’re going to need to slow down a bit,” she can be heard saying in audio transmissions. “Could you have medical meet us there on the runway as well? We’ve got injured passengers.”

When air traffic controllers asked her if the plane was on fire, they were stunned by her response.

“No, it’s not on fire, but part of it’s missing,” Shults said. “They said there’s a hole, and uh, someone went out.”

“Um, I’m sorry, you said there was a hole and somebody went out?” the shocked tower replied. “Southwest 1380, it doesn’t matter. We will work it out there.”

Shults was then able to successfully make the emergency landing, saving the lives of 148 people.

“Most of us, when that engine blew, I think we were pretty much going, ‘Well, this just might be it,'” said passenger Peggy Phillips, from Brandon, Texas. “To get us down with no hydraulics and a blown engine and land us safely is nothing short of miraculous to me. She’s a hero, for sure.”

Shults is not only a pilot: she’s also a woman of strong Christian faith.

Her mother-in-law, Virginia Shults described the pilot as a “devout Christian,” adding that she believes Shults’ faith allowed her to stay calm as she made the difficult emergency landing.

“I know God was with her, and I know she was talking to God,” Virginia Shults said.

Shults is a graduate of MidAmerica Nazarene, and the school’s alumni director Kevin Garber described her as a “solid woman of faith” and “very down-to-earth.”

The passengers all see Shults as a hero who saved their lives.

“She has nerves of steel,” one passenger, Alfred Tumlinson, told the Associated Press. “That lady, I applaud her. I’m going to send her a Christmas card — I’m going to tell you that — with a gift certificate for getting me on the ground. She was awesome.”

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