You have two choices in that situation, as a pilot, be calm and follow your training guided by situational instinct or panic and give in to fear.
I trust that our naval aviator training and Air Force training that produces our front line pilots weeds out the latter and produces a lot of the former.
This woman is in fact a hero. I know from an engineering standpoint these planes can fly on one engine but I also know if I were on a passenger and saw a blown up engine on the port side I wouldn’t want to continue to test my belief in that engineering.
Absolutely amazing outcome.
You are right, of course, on both counts.
The quite unusual noises, oxygen mask deployment, descent, obvious loss of one engine, obvious passenger injuries at least one of which was grotesque, behavior of cabin attendants, etc., would elevate one's heart rate.
The pilot/flight crew, receiving reports from the cabin crew almost certainly endured the entire scenario concerned about the possible imminent loss of controls.
I believe they test the theory in test rides by shutting down 1 engine in flight to make sure the remaining engine can sustain flight. BUT, in this case of a totally mangled nacelle changing the airflow and flight characteristics of the wing and the control surfaces, I doubt this plane handled the same as it would had an engine just been shut down but no change to its physical aerodynamics. Pilot did a fantastic job.