Written by: Robert Glazer | Friday Forward
A recent story of Delta Flight 302 offers an instructive lesson about taking calculated risks.
With Hurricane Irma’s eye fast approaching, bringing 185mph, Category 5 winds along with it, this Delta flight to New York was the last plane to take off from Puerto Rico before the airport closed.
After landing in San Juan, the pilots faced a storm that was kicking in to high gear. The team, and Delta’s command center, realized that if the plane stayed there during the storm, it would probably be destroyed and the pilots and crew would be at risk. Plus … there were people waiting for the flight who desperately wanted to get off the island.
Consulting with meteorologists and experts in the Delta command center, the pilots knew from landing that there was a gap between the hurricane’s outer bands (storm rings) that was about to pass over the San Juan airport. If the plane took off within that window and stayed between the gap, it would have enough time to safely get above the storm.
The flight crew proceeded with this plan and escaped the storm without incident, much to the shock of many who were following the story as it unfolded.
What may have seemed like a reckless decision to some was actually a carefully calculated risk, one that involved prudent assessment and judgement.
Taking risk is an essential part of personal and professional growth, but it can often be a struggle to determine how much risk to take and when. If we never took any risks in life, we would not get very far.
However, when we take outsized risks, it can lead to disaster.