News
Statement by captain of CanJet Flight 918

April 24, 2009, Halifax – Capt. James Murphy, pilot in command of CanJet Flight 918, issued the following statement regarding the incident earlier this week. Neither Capt. Murphy nor other members of the crew are granting interviews to the news media at this time.

“All of us who were on board Flight 918 a few days ago have had to live
through one of the worst nightmares of every passenger, pilot, and flight attendant. As professionals, we are trained to deal with what happened, but living through it is something else.
“We are truly touched by the support and praise we’ve received from our families, the passengers, and from people all over the country. The support we’ve had from our employer, our colleagues, and our unions has been first class. We know that the Canadian and Jamaican governments had a role to play and we appreciate their efforts.

“We’ve been called heroes. We certainly don’t feel like heroes. We did what we had to do and what we were trained to do. The passengers for whom we were responsible coped so well and that should never be forgotten.

“Since we have come back home, we’ve had to deal with debriefs and other procedural matters. And we’ve talked among ourselves and had to relive a lot of what happened.

“We know people want to hear about the experience directly from us. Someday we may feel able to talk openly about it. But right now, we need some privacy. We ask that people respect our need to work through this in our own time.”