On February 24, 1989, United Airlines Flight 811 took off from Honolulu on its way to New Zealand. The 747 had climbed to twenty-two thousand feet when the forward cargo door of the jet blew open, tearing a huge hole in the side of the plane. Nine passengers were immediately sucked out of the plane to their deaths. The two right engines were damaged by flying debris and taken out of commission. The plane was one hundred miles from
land. The captain, David Cronin, brought all of his wisdom and thirty-eight years of piloting experience to bear.
His stickiest problem was deciding how fast to fly .... Because the hole had changed the aero-dynamics of the huge craft, the usual data regarding stall speed was no longer relevant. The pilot [knowing this] had to use his best judgment. Furthermore, since the plane had just taken on 300,000 pounds of fuel for the long flight, it was too heavy to land without collapsing the landing gear .... Then he encountered a new problem. The wing
flaps used to slow down the plane were not working properly .... He would have to land the plane at 195 miles per hour, compared to the normal speed of 170 miles per hour.
The jet weighed 610,000 pounds, well above Boeing's recommended maximum stress load of 564,000 pounds. Nevertheless, Captain Cronin made one of the smoothest landings the rest of the crew could remember, amid the cheers of the passengers. Airline experts called the landing miraculous .... A few days later an interviewer asked Captain Cronin about his first thoughts following the loss of the cargo door. He said, "I said a prayer for my
passengers momentarily and then got back to business."
When United Airlines Flight 811 got into trouble, the greatest gift Captain Cronin had for his passengers was his experience and good judgment .... The critical issue was this: was he competent enough as a pilot to bring that badly damaged plane in safely?
"His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant..." Matthew 25:21
Good service to the Lord can be given through competent service to others. What we do, and how we do it says volumes about Whom we serve.
