One of the Most AMAZING Aviation Stories EVER told! | TACA flight 110

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I was part of this crew as a flight attenndant and I always remember this experience as the day I was born again. I maintain a friendship with Dardano and the media have eventually invited us to share the experience on radio and TV. Captains Lopez and Soley are no longer with us but we always remember them with much appreciation.

I’m an FO with TACA Airlines, and I’ve been fortunate to share the cockpit with Cap. Dardano on a few occasions, now on the Airbus A320, and like many I was curious about hearing the story from the man himself. Even after 30+ years of telling the story, he still tells it with such emotion and detail which was an experience unto itself. He is a larger-than-life character, and even on such an automated and high-tech aircraft as the A320 is, he still flies it as if it were a basic stick and rudder aircraft with such dexterity and skill, and he also encourages us FO’s to do the same, which is a bit daunting at first since we never do that except in the simulator. He makes you feel comfortable and helps you understand how to take every step, even though he’s not a line instructor. I was also lucky enough to hear the story about how he lost his eye, and that is equally or even more impressive than the Flight 110 story. We still have a few of these older, maverick-type captains and it is a school unto itself learning form these amazing aviators. Great job on the documentary, very well done with all the details and animations. If he hasn’t already seen it, I will let Cap. Dardano know so he can check it out. I’ve been binge watching this whole series but this one is just top level, great job Captain. Happy landings ✈️

Captain Dardano is a legend, had he been American, movies and books would’ve been written about this. When he got shot in the eye while piloting, he managed to take off and save his passengers, all this with his left eye shot out, then this miracle of aviation. True hero, legend.

A one eyed pilot that outflies most of his peers! GREAT story, fantastic airmanship !!! Wish I could shake his hand!

If this were a movie, I would have complained that the characters were far too lucky and that it was not realistic. This is an incredible story.

Everyone’s giving props to the captain, which he totally deserves, but that first officer has a great set of eyes and made a brilliant call out to land on the strip of solid ground .

The most amazing thing about this story is how flexible and understanding the FAA used to be.

Agreed. How this pilot did not receive more recognition is behind me. It was a once-in-lifetime landing. The Captain was young too. Most of his flight hours came from military training.

I worked at NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility for 32 years. There is way more to this story. I was there that day and saw a portion of the landing as the plane briefly went past a window of a conference room I was sitting in. I also saw the takeoff. They changed out one engine and the other was used as is. You could not use all of the runway that was left over from WWII because buildings had been built near the edge in the intervening years. Buildings that close would have struck the wings of a plane. The takeoff had to be Very Steep because the runway was short and there were high obstacles near the end. We had to take down road signs on the portion of the runway they used so as not to strike the wings. The takeoff was not at all like it was depicted in the animation but VERY STEEP and then the pilot made a sharp bank to the right! Not sure how steep but let's just say it would've put your drink in your lap! NASA has archived videos of that takeoff. I had no idea a passenger plane could takeoff that steep and yet bank a turn at the same time. They were trying to avoid a high-rise bridge that goes between New Orleans East and Chalmette Louisiana and a power plant near the end of the runway. Boeing test pilots were dispatched to do the job but the TACA Airlines pilot was very disappointed that he was not allowed to fly it out! You should also know that we had a large bus that circled the facility to ferry people from one building to another. It's very similar to the buses used at airports to take people from the terminal to parking. That bus was quickly dispatched to collect the passengers and crew. They were brought to the Space Shuttle Mission Support Room in building 350. From a purely technical point of view, they had illegally entered a secure government facility, but they were treated cordially and with great admiration and respect considering the circumstances. Of course that was a very laid back time prior to 911.

Some years ago I contacted Southwest Airlines (the eventual owner of TACA Flight 110's airframe, N75356) in the hopes to have the airframe saved for museum display. Although I was ultimately unsuccessful, their corporate office DID tell me they decided to save the flight yoke from the airframe upon scrapping to give it to Carlos Dardano. I hope he gets it. :)

The fact that the landing was so perfect that there wasn't even an accident report for it... That is some amazing work for all the crew involved, not just the PIC.

A landing so perfect there wasn’t even an accident report. Astonishing!

I realize that "Sully" had more Hollywood sex appeal because it was recent, it was in New York City, and it had a dramatic boat rescue involved, but the Taca story is just as incredible and should absolutely be made into a movie. What an amazing job of piloting.

You forgot to mention, during is incident in 1979, while severely injured, his eye shot, he managed to take off to land the persons he was carrying to safety.

I am a former TACA (Perú) pilot, I remember we used to analize this incredible flight on the many CRM trainings that we did. As you said, it's a masterclass of airmanship. Thank you for this!

Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was... occupied. Keep coming back to this story and Petter's delivery. Just brightens my day. Also reinforces my belief in the resilience of the B737 in capable hands.

So glad they approved him to fly commercial airlines. I know it wasn't easy with his eye but it was such a good decision because this guy was born to be a pilot.

Carlos Dardanos did an interview with me for a feature story in Aviation Week’s ‘Business & Commercial Aviation’ magazine in 2005. He was a great interview, with an amazing story. And, a very humble and entertaining storyteller. When Sully leaped to worldwide fame, I tried to get the TV networks to revisit the essentially untold-to-American-audiences historical off-airport landing of the Taca Airlines B-737. No takers. It was as if because Carlos wasn’t a US pilot, the networks couldn’t appreciate what he had accomplished. Even though his one-in-million landing on a levee occurred...in America.

This level of sensation and situational awareness are things you can't teach to someone. This crew is a legend.