Seconds From Disaster | The Amazing Story Of A Shuttle Secret Mission | Hoot Gibson | EPISODE 2

Watch ALL Hoot Gibson's episodes at: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBI4gRjPKfnO5CF3r1r0FHX…

I flew as Hoot's first officer at Southwest Airlines. He's a super nice guy and really is as genuine as he seems.

I remember hearing about the tile damage of STS-27 on the news. At the very least, there was transparency with that. My biggest issue is, NASA should've learned from this incident, and should've done something about it. One accident is somehow acceptable in NASA, but when Columbia disintegrated entering the Earth's atmosphere, I myself was pissed off! Especially when we knew about STS-27! There's simply no excuse, none!!!!!

Nothing but respect for astronauts. Not an easy job, but DEFINITELY the coolest job there is.

"Career limiting to argue with mission control" Also career limiting to not argue...

"The man who could fly anything"! That reminds me of the line from Apollo 13 when James Lovells mother said "if they could get a washing machine to fly, my Jimmy could land it." Astronauts have always been my heroes. The good Lord rode all the way.

I met Hoot when he was hired as an expert witness on a case that i was working on. He is most definitely the most interesting man in the world. A very kind gentleman as well.

How they made it back with all those damaged and missing heat tiles is a miracle. Let's just be thankful they did.

"No. There would have been to many people to punch" 😂 He is very lucky to be alive. Glad they were lucky and came down safely 👌 Great interview!

This proves what I have said for a long time. If no one dies and/or nothing big gets destroyed, all is good, don't worry about it. Safety comes into question only after something bad happens, like Challenger and Columbia and Apollo 1.

If there had been a disaster, the original photographs would have been lost forever and the ground crew would have said: 'There was no evidence of any tile problems before re-entry, we looked carefully and there was no damage..." 🤨

I've read about that story several times. Just how close STS-27 came to disaster but this is the first time I've heard it from the man himself. And 'Hoot' is so right; the shuttle program would have ended in 1988. The best decision NASA made was to put that white elephant to bed before it happened a third time. Those orbiters were pelted with debris on every single launch...

After their lucky escape on the 27th Shuttle flight, all the crew members would fly on the Shuttle again. That really shows how brave and courageous these men were and have my upmost admiration.

Thank you Hoot for your brave service in our Shuttle Program. I appreciate your candor and honesty. Apparently ZERO lessons were learned from this experience and Columbia was subsequently lost because of the same NASA attitude. Nothing was done to enable replacement or repair of tiles while on mission. Hoot stated this himself. The attitude that the experts were on the ground and that you never argue with Mission Control was wrong too. No one flying a desk chair in Mission Control was going to die if a wheel came off of their chair. Regardless of whether or not anything could be done, Hoot should have sent high res images if he could have. Same goes for DOD and their satellite. No one in the Pentagon would have died either. This kind of attitude still pervades many government agencies that make stupid decisions because their livelihoods will continue to be funded by other people’s money no matter what. (I served in the Navy Submarine Force for 20 years and at no time did we do anything at depth that we treated as "routine" and every man on that ship was expected to speak up if he thought there was a "safety of ship" problem.)

For me the most shocking revelation here is that the Columbia accident was allowed to happen after STS27.

Great interview! Apart from the technical issues with the vehicle, I reckon the leadership aspects put forward by Hoot are very interesting. As a pilot, I find it quite common for people who are not putting their bacon on the line to try and make you take an inappropriate course of action. The communication breakdown was most amazing: they chose to disregard the crew's concerns although the astronauts were highly trained and experienced professionals. I guess the balance of power favoured this type of behaviour, as Hoot said, because going against Mission Control would be damaging to your career. A relatively high number of candidates for a few astronaut spots... This was the case since the early days of the Apollo program. Gus Grissom knew the spacecraft was nowhere near ready but chose to remain silent to avoid losing his spot. When Wally Shirra went back to orbit on Apollo 7, he led his crew in a rebellion against Mission Control when he disagreed with them. He was going to retire anyway. His crewmates, however, never flew again...

A MOST REVEALING AND QUITE AN EYE-OPENING DOCUMENTARY ! ! !👍

Wow, I had no idea, the danger of organizational learning disorder. And what an excellent leader, his debrief was an honest evaluation of what he could have done better.

Always admired Mr. Gibson, recently found he lives very close to me. As a child he was one of my heros, to find that when not on professional business our heros live just as we do would have been unbelievable to , me at the age of eight. Godspeed Robert Gibson, and thank you for the years of service.

If at all possible, I hope there is some way you can get my message to Hoot Gibson and the crew of STS-27. I salute you in your self control during your communications with mission control. Knowing the resolution of encrypted video, the "ground" should have been more careful in their diagnosis of the tile problem. It is due to the attention to detail and downright resolve of brave commanders like yourself that our space program was and is so successful. I thank God you all returned home unscathed and I salute you from the bottom of my heart........P.S. There is one unwritten law of aviation any aviation that sorely needs to be changed. " Never bark at those in control on the ground"