Article August 19, 2002 Issue

Safer skies

A pilot and his wife talk about the challenges of air travel.

by Warren Bolon Sentinel staff

As Captain Bill Foster approached his assigned runway at Philadelphia International Airport that day, a winter storm was blowing through eastern Pennsylvania. There were high crosswinds. The runway was covered with ice. Blowing snow meant limited visibility.

They were conditions you wouldn't want to deal with on foot, much less at the controls of a few hundred thousand pounds of aircraft and with responsibility for all those passengers. Foster admits to wondering for a moment, "Am I up to the task?" Then it all kicked in.

"Once you know your source," Foster says, speaking about his trust in God, "then all the capabilities and knowledge you need are right there at your fingertips." So it was in Philadelphia that day. And for Foster's thousands of other takeoffs and landings. "It was a nice landing," Foster says (a pilot can sound both serious and wistful in the same breath). "The plane came to a stop without skidding. I thought I'd missed my taxiway, but the guy in the tower told me I'd taken the right one." Once you know your source.

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