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From: Wayne La Liberte
Date: 10/10/2012 7:52:04 PM
To: Mark Sztanyo
Subject:
hopefully a one of a kind flying experience
Mark ;
I am forwarding an event out of my memoirs titled Flight
Into Hell in my book "Chronicles of a 20th Century Airline Captain"
hopefully it is an event that no one else will experience--no checklist for
this one
W.R. La liberte' L-15 International Captain retired-Sept
1997
A
FLIGHT INTO HELL
It was
afternoon, 16:45P.M. Pacific Standard Time on October 17, 1989. We were inbound
to San Francisco’s runway 28R this was the second leg of the second rotation of
the month, weather had been VFR on both legs from Atl to Lax and then on to Sfo.
We had a new 767,you could tell that by the pleasant aroma of fresh leather
emanating from the pilot seats , all conditions had been routine, flight attendants friendly
and led by Jan one of my favorite lead
flight attendants .Jan was a seasoned A line and ran a tight ship in the back,
she was also married to a Delta Captain and was sympathetic and considerate of
the cockpit crew, my First Officer Jack, an amicable ,highly competent pilot
who had learned his craft from his father who taught him to fly at an early age of 14 with a vintage Stearman so
by the time he was eligible for military flight school ,he had already achieved
civilian flight instructor status, an
enviable childhood by anybody’s standards . Jack liked to bid rotations with me
because I had initiated a nonsmoking policy in my cockpit in order to cut down
on the fumes that we were exposed to, this was the result of a bad experience
with Boeck’s Sarcoidosis , a malady whose symptoms included a dry cough ,chest
tightness, lack of breath and possible lung cancer ,an x-ray revealed a dark
spot on my left lung ,initially I consulted
a surgeon who wanted to open me up and do exploratory surgery something
I determined later probably would have killed me, I opted instead to get a
second opinion and went to Mount Sinai Hospital in N.Y where a Dr. Silsback he inquired as to whether I smoked I indicated I
had, but effective today I would rid myself of the habit .Six months later the
spot disappeared and I became a non-smoking advocate, the cockpit also served
as a sanctuary for flight attendants to take a breathing break from the smoke being generated in the
cabin even though the air was supposed to change every 2 minutes . In spite of
my efforts after a rotation, on returning home I always had the stale smell of
cigarette smoke on my clothes.
As we
continued our approach to 28R even though VFR we were on the ILS, at about
1000’Jack asked me to look at the bay, said he had never noticed anything like
it before, the water was spiking up sort of like what you see in wildlife films
when alligators are in their courting mode and the males are announcing their
presence by rippling the water
We landed on
time, passengers disembarked and Jack and I went down to operations to find out
if anyone else had reported the strange phenomenon, no one had so Jack went to
the restroom while I talked with the operations guy .As we spoke a very low
rumble began ,my first thought was that a mechanic was running up an engine
,but then realized that this is something not done at the gate in the next
instant the rumble turned into a deafening roar someone yelled earthquake, the
room became blurry and I fell to the floor unable to maintain my balance, all
the while the room continued to have a three or four dimensional appearance to
it.15 seconds later it stopped, it seemed like an eternity. I got up and looked
around to make sure we didn’t have any eminent danger of a roof collapse;
meanwhile Jack came out of the rest room disheveled and wet from his
inopportune dance. I asked him what the hell he was doing in there to cause
such a ruckus; he laughed and said now I guess we know what the ripples on the
bay were about.
In the meantime,
the flight attendants had been in the jet way and to say they had been tossed
about would be an understatement, no injuries, but lots of wet underwear.
The airplane
I was told bounced around like a rubber ball but not damaged
Jack
suggested we should perhaps check local hotels close to the airport so we could
get back if necessary, the operation agent checked the local airport Hilton and
learned that the water tower had collapsed into the elevator shaft and the
building had been declared unsafe. He then called the Canterbury, our usual
layover hotel, they indicated that the hotel was checked from top to bottom,
was found safe for occupancy, had hot and cold running water, food available
and was awaiting our arrival.
The Canterbury was an older hotel that kind of
grew on you because of the hospitality that its personnel exhibited with crewmembers
–it also had cast iron tubs a point not to be overlooked under these
circumstances and it was close to the wharf area.
In the
meantime the flight attendants had gathered and I filled them in on what I
knew, as a crew I told them I thought we should stick together, Jan agreed but
not knowing what was out there if any wished to stay at the airport they could.
I had ops call the cab company to see if we could take a route to the
Canterbury that avoided as much as possible overpasses and underpasses
As we made
our way to the Canterbury hotel the devastation was truly incredible, brick
structures had fallen away and you could see people sitting at a table on the
third floor of a badly damaged building, fires, damaged cars ,crushed cars and
chaos seemed everywhere, at one intersection a flower child attired in
sneakers, jockey shorts and a top hat with a flower was directing traffic and doing a good job.
As we
approached the Canterbury area I noticed many facades had broken loose and fallen
to the streets below, cracks in the pavement, broken water lines and natural
gas fires seemed everywhere we were greeted by the folks at Canterbury with
candles and reassurances that the building was safe, built in 1928, it had
withstood a lot through its 71 years.
I told the crew that I was going to take a
shower dress. for tomorrow eat my deli sandwich with about 6 beers, get into
the cast iron tub with pillows and try to sleep during the night, Sleeping in
the tub was not especially comfortable but if I was unlucky enough to have to
go from the sixth floor to the basement it would provide some protection I suggested
they do the same.
In the event
we had to evacuate, we were to meet in the middle of the street away from the
buildings to avoid falling debris, bring flashlights if you had them and we
would stick together for safety reasons.
We had several tremors during the night, a few
sporadic gunshots in the alley but nothing of great consequence like the 7.1 on
the Richter scale that we had experienced.
I called my
wife at midnight her time and miraculously got through to her and learned that
flight control had contacted her and told her we had made it to the hotel, but
the night was young and we were doing our best, not to worry about things we
couldn’t control.
The next day
we made our way to the airport, the devastation was mind boggling .I saw a car
that had been crushed the only evidence that someone had died in it was an arm
hanging out the window with the hand grasping for something, the memory haunts
me to this day.
The third game of the World Series between the
Oakland A’s and the Giant’s was in progress at Candler Park was halted and
delayed indefinitely; damage was minimal, with some people being struck by
falling debris.
The
epicenter was located on the San Andreas Fault in the Santa Cruz Mountains at a
depth of 11 miles and was the largest earthquake since 1906
As we left
San Francisco I could not help but think of how lucky we were to have survived
this event. Using “Risk & Asset” management disciplines which have served
me well throughout my flying career were probably valuable in minimizing our
exposer, but with so many unknown variables, fate seems to have prevailed in
our good fortune. Crew cohesiveness has always been paramount in my operation,
it worked well here and will always work where people get together in a common
goal.
W.R.
La Liberte’, L15 International Captain retired Sept 1997~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Full post disclaimer in left column. PCN Home Page is located at: http://pcn.homestead.com/home01.html
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