Risk Management Magazine

I immediately got out of my car and heard a baby crying. I thought, “What have I done?” I called 911 and then asked the lady in the car, “Are you and the baby all right?”

My initial gut feeling of unease was warranted, but I ignored it. My inexperience as an instructor also blinded me to the possibility that my instructions were not fully understood by all equally.

My co-pilot and I were on the final leg of a three-leg mission. We’d taken off from Barranquilla on the northern coast and were flying south to Bogota. Just about halfway along the 1.5-hour route at 26,000 feet, I looked out my right-side window and noticed streaks of fluid around the No. 2 engine.