There's hardly a person in America that doesn't know that on 9/11, Flight 93 didn't achieve its target of crashing into the White House or the Capitol. Instead, a group of brave passengers seized the moment and took destiny into their own hands. These brave people altered the course of history and kept a national tragedy from becoming worse. As a nation, we're indebted to them doing what they felt was right.
Clancy Prevost, Flight Instructor, is the American Hero who gave the passengers a critical advantage. Instead of 5 hijackers, only 4 were on board, since Clancy warned his superiors, who eventually called the FBI, that the "20th hijacker" assigned to him for training didn't fit any reasonable profile for a person training in a 747 simulator. Clancy spoke up and persisted, even when his supervisors felt that it might be better to just keep the cash and give the training. Hopefully there's a little Clancy in all of us, and when we see something that's not right, we'll speak up and persist, even in the face of others who seek to avoid controversy and look the other way.
If you think Clancy's the product of small town American values, you're right. Coincidentally, I can tell you in detail about the town and the values that influenced a man like Clancy Prevost. After all, we grew up two blocks from each other...
You may have grown up in the same kind of small town. One where perhaps the front door was locked, but of course the back door was left open. Why? Because someone might have to get into the house and leave you something. My wife, then girlfriend, was baffled by the logic of this when we were asked to leave something at a college classmate's house. Sure enough, the front door was locked, so we went around back and left the items on the kitchen table.
It was a town where kids rode bikes everywhere and there was never a need to lock them. Why would anyone steal a bike? Or, they might spend the entire day roaming the nearby woods, exploring and building forts out of fallen branches. They could be away for an entire day and there was never a fear for their safety. Who would hurt a kid?
People watched out for each other and for everyone's kids. Everyone knew everyone. Kids might pull an occasional prank, but the odds were that your parents had already heard about it before you even reached home.
We learned to respect our parents and institutions. We also learned by watching our parents about right and wrong, and more importantly, when to speak up when something was not right--even if it meant rocking the boat.
Clancy's father and mine were doctors in the same small northern Pennsylvania town. Dr. John Prevost visited our house numerous times, and I can still hear his voice booming from our living room. I have no doubt that that voice may have put the fear of God into Clancy once or twice. However, it also undoubtedly gave him the command authority that he's needed as a professional pilot and flight instructor. Just as in medicine, in flying there are times when you have to speak up with command authority or someone's going to die.
When people talk about small town values, Midwest values, and the Heartland of America, they're talking about some of the greatest strengths we have as a nation. As a pilot, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to leave the metropolitan area and reconnect with my roots in the small towns and airports across America. As a nation, we're indebted to the values that were imbued in Clancy Prevost as a young boy growing up in a small town.
I hope that there's a little bit of Clancy in you. As a pilot or CFI, you'll encounter situations when things are not right and someone needs to speak up. One morning a few years ago, I saw 3 or 4 pilots watching from a respectful distance as a pilot prepared to start a rental aircraft that had a layer of ice on the tail. Everyone knew that this pilot was about to commit a dangerous act, but none of them stepped up to challenge the pilot's incredibly bad decision. I walked over to talk to the pilot just before he started the engine and suggested he clean off the ice. I'd rather run the risk of annoying someone, than live with the knowledge that I could have saved a life if I'd only spoken up.
Clancy may have annoyed his supervisors when he pointed out that something didn't fit with Zacarias Moussaoui, a still unlicensed pilot, who'd paid for training in a 747 simulator. Clancy persisted, and eventually the FBI was called and Moussaoui was arrested for overstaying his visa. As a result, he was sitting in jail when his co-conspirators hijacked four planes on 9/11.
Clancy is shy and avoids the press. To my knowledge, the only interview he has granted was to my hometown newspaper, which my mother mailed to me. You can read the article here, which starts on page 6. Although he would deny it, Clancy Prevost is an American Hero. If you see a little bit of Clancy in yourself, nurture it for the day when you need to speak out and stand up for what's right.
Max:
What a great story. I can't remember ever hearing anyone mention the word hero and flight instructor in the same sentence.
Rob Mark
Posted by: Rob Mark | January 30, 2008 at 09:04 AM