Captain Kevin Sullivan: Dealing with the trauma of infamous flight QF72

From Sunday Morning, 11:04 am on 2 June 2019
Passengers were slammed into overhead lockers on flight QF72

Passengers were slammed into overhead lockers on flight QF72 Photo: supplied

Pilot Kevin Sullivan had a background in flying U.S fighter jets on and off aircraft carriers, but it was a so-called routine Qantas flight from Singapore to Perth which left him permanently damaged. He was at the controls of the Airbus 330 when it suddenly, twice, went into sharp nose dives resulting in 118 passengers, some of them seriously, injured. He had to continue to get the plane to Australia and make an emergency landing. He kept flying for another 8 years but stopped when he realised the trauma of the flight would always remain with him. He explains what happened that day and the damage it inflicted on him in his book No Man's Land.