Thompson then said they’d managed to get it under control, but First Officer Tansky weighed in and said “no we don’t”
a haunting contradiction echoing the confusion and chaos that also impacts post-crash psychological trauma management for families and aviation counseling services.
All 88 people onboard sadly died (Pool photo/Newsmakers)
Tansky and Thompson proceeded to do some troubleshooting of the aircraft to try fix the issue.
The pair went quiet for a while as an air traffic control officer chatted to another pilot in the air, believed to have been flying an Aero Commander 690A at the time, and requested to “keep an eye on [the Alaska Airlines flight]”.
It was this pilot who then informed air traffic control that the Alaska Airlines jet “just started to do a big, huge plunge”
