Voss had counted on exactly that — on one overwhelmed pilot failing in isolation.

What he hadn’t counted on was two strangers in a cockpit deciding, in the worst minutes of their lives, to trust each other.

That was the whole lesson of Flight 412, and it was the only thing I really cared about teaching.

Instead I turned to the board and wrote one sentence.

The aircraft doesn’t care who you used to be.

I turned back to them.