Guy Eby (November 9, 1918 – July 30, 2021) was an Americanairline captain who kept the commercial airplane he was flying (American Airlines Flight 182) fromcolliding with another one (TWA Flight 37) on November 26, 1975, following a mistake from an air traffic controller inCleveland, Ohio.[1]
Eby was born on November 9, 1918, inEphrata, Pennsylvania.[2] He received theAir Medal in 1946 for his services forUnited States Navy (1938–1950)[3] against Japan in 1945 towards the end ofWorld War II.[4] He flew in theBerlin Blockade. He joined American Airlines in 1950.
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The two planes, carrying a combined 319 passengers and crew members—192 passengers and 13 crew members on boardAmerican Airlines Flight 182, plus 103 passengers and 11 crew members on boardTrans World Airlines (TWA) Flight 37—were reportedly just 100 feet (30 m) away from each other as they flew over the city ofCarleton, Michigan. Eby's plane (an American AirlinesDC-10 flying that day as Flight 182) was headed towardsNewark, New Jersey, fromChicago, Illinois; it had originated inSan Francisco, California. The other plane (a TWALockheed L-1011 TriStar flying that day as Flight 37) was heading fromPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, toLos Angeles, California.
Eby quickly lowered his plane's altitude at 35,000 feet (11,000 m) amidst a significant cloud cover, an action which ultimately saved the lives of his passengers and the flight crew. All 10 flight attendants plus 14 passengers suffered injuries on the American Airlines plane (the incident occurred while dinner was being served), and it was forced to make an emergency landing in Detroit.[5][6] At the time, Eby had already logged flight time of nearly 22,000 hours. Had the collision not been avoided, it would have been the greatest aviation disaster in the history of United States up to that time.[7]
The TWA plane involved in the incident was later destroyed by a fire on July 30, 1992, while flying asTWA Flight 843.[8]
Eby retired from American Airlines in 1978. Ebyturned 100 on November 9, 2018, inOrmond Beach, Florida, where he had resided since 1983.[9] One of the passengers in the American Airlines Flight 182, Burt Herman (who was flying with his wife Elaine, his twin daughters Laura and Leslie and son Larry at that time), wrote and published a book about Eby and the incident, calledEby: Master of the Moment in 2018.[10] He died in Ormond Beach on July 30, 2021, at the age of 102.[11]
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