Pilot says ‘we’re done’ in nail-biting moment before making 'the most difficult decision’

An airline pilot has opened up about a nail-biting moment from his career that would lead to the most "difficult decision" he's ever made while flying. In a recent episode of Hangar Flying – The Aviation Podcast, Steve Scheibner, also known as Captain Steeeve, an American Airlines pilot and YouTuber, was asked to name the most difficult decision he's ever had to make in the cockpit.

It prompted him to share a hair-raising story from his military days, a time when he experienced most of his "tough" dilemmas, noting how his role involved travelling to places where difficult decisions were more necessary. Steve was flying a Lockheed P-3 Orion into Andøya, Norway, at the time of the incident. He was part of what he described as a two-ship operation in a reserve crew for two weeks, "augmenting" the active duty crew. He detailed how they were participating in a "high-buoy, low-buoy operation", dropping buoys and tracking a submarine.

Steve described how they were hit by a snowstorm as they were trying to land in Andøya. In a nerve-racking moment, Steve missed three approaches as they "didn't see the runway", but managed to land on the snow-covered strip on the fourth try.

He then waited as the second aeroplane came in for a landing behind them, but they faced similar difficulties and missed a total of four approaches before landing on the fifth.

The pilot thought that the conditions were bad enough to warrant staying where they were for the night, but the second crew had other plans, opting to fuel up, de-ice the plane and then head home.

Steve, sharing his concerns with the other crew, was greeted by "the hand", as they told him that they should do "whatever" they needed to do, so he decided to give it a go himself.

Yet, the conditions were what he dubbed a "total white out", and it was "snowing like mad". However, he then explained how they got the plane onto the runway and applied the parking brake.

Steve said: "We set the parking brake on the airplane and the airplane begins to slide. I'm not trying to take off or anything. I just set the parking brake, and it starts to slide. I look at him, he looks at me, and I go, 'We're done'. He goes, 'Yep, we're done'.

"So, I release the parking brake, we taxi back in, and I explain to the other guys. I go, 'Look, we're out here; we've got this thing, and it was a nil braking action'.

"They show us the hand again, and they decide to go take off in this blizzard. So, they taxi out and I hear them push up the power and off they go into the snowstorm. We spent the night; they go back, all right."

Once they returned the following day, Steve was summoned by a commanding officer, who immediately asked him why they opted to stay, to which Steve asked why the other crew returned.

Steve proceeded to highlight the accelerate stop distance chart in their operating manual and how, with a nil braking action, there wasn't enough runway on the "entire planet" for them to take off safely.

He added that if he lost an engine in a snowstorm in that particular aircraft, he would "go off the side" of the runway, so they decided to stay. Ultimately, the commanding officer told him it was a "pretty solid answer" and dismissed him.

Summing up, Steve described this as "probably the most difficult decision" he's ever made flying, but believes it was the correct one.