Patrick D. McCaslin Interview, 25 February 2001
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| PM: | Right. At that point, you know, none of the pilots—at least they'd not told me that they'd seen anything visually during the flight, even though I was reporting this thing 3 miles, 1 mile—they didn't see it while they're airborne—I mean, except for the over flight. And at the point where somebody spotted it, or just prior to that when we were gonna over fly it, he—and I don't remember the words, I don't remember the context, but he excused himself from that and did not want to be part of it because then he would've had to give testimony or a debriefing about what he saw. If he didn't see anything, then he didn't have to say he saw anything. | |
| INT: | But he was making an assumption that there would have to be a debriefing the next day? Is that it? | |
| PM: | I would guess so. I mean I'm not even—at that point I wasn't sure anybody was gonna call us up and tell us that we had to debrief anybody, but maybe he was a little wiser than I was, you know? | |
| INT: | He didn't want to take any chances? | |
| PM: | That may have come up in the debriefing after we landed, but it was clear to me that I knew why Don Cagle wasn't in there with Holland the next day. He was interviewing with Delta Airlines. He had an airplane ticket to go interview with them. He was starting his new career and he didn't want to have that jeopardized. Don't get me wrong I like Don Cagle. I liked him at the time, but he— | |
| INT: | He was moving on in his career? | |
| PM: | But he was moving on, and that was a threat to it at that point. | |
| INT: | I mean, at that time, all those pilots probably looked at doing commercial flying, right? | |
| PM: | Not all of 'em, but a lot of 'em did. | |
| INT: | Money was good. | |
| PM: | Sure. That was a good time to move to the airlines, and a lot of the guys were doing it. | |
| INT: | You didn't have to live on an Air Force Base. | |
| PM: | Right. Well, you had a whole future. I mean good money—long future. I mean, you don't have to turn the airplane upside down or have people shoot at you, and, you know, a little better deal. More money. |
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