At 1158 (local time) on February 13, 2018, Captain Christopher Behnam was commanding United Airlines Flight 1175 in a Boeing 777. He and his crew were experiencing a routine flight from San Francisco to Honolulu when he heard a loud bang accompanied by multiple warning indications and a violent shaking of the aircraft. He would soon discover they had experienced a catastrophic failure of the #2 engine and had lost half of their thrust along with significant drag induced from the damage to the surrounding area. One hundred twenty miles of open ocean lie beneath him between their location and the safety of the Hawaiian Islands.
 
The story you are about to read is a first-person account of how he and his crew brought the stricken aircraft and 381 souls to a safe landing an hour later. Descending through thick cloud cover, barely able to read their instruments, the crew bonded in ways that -- tragically -- other airline crews in past events were not able to do. But this is not just a story of a miracle recovery by a well-trained crew, it is much, much more.
 
This is a story of what Churchill referred to as the chance to do "a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents." As you will soon learn, Captain Behnam has been preparing his entire life for just this moment.