Passenger With No Flight Experience Lands Plane When Pilot Has Medical Emergency
A passenger with no prior flight experience safely landed a private plane in a Florida airport on Tuesday afternoon after the pilot had a medical emergency.
As the situation continued, the passenger could be heard telling air traffic control that he didn't know how to fly a plane.
"I've got a serious situation here," the unidentified passenger said. "My pilot has gone incoherent, and I have no idea how to fly the airplane."
The air traffic controller started to give the passenger instructions on landing the plane, which he successfully landed at the Palm Beach International Airport.
"Try to hold the wings level and see if you can start descending for me. Push forward on the controls and descend at a very slow rate," the air traffic controller can be heard telling the man. "Try to follow the coast either north or southbound. We're trying to locate you."
In audio from LiveATC.net, another air traffic controller can be heard telling other pilots what just had happened.
"You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane," the tower operator can be heard telling an American Airlines pilot waiting for takeoff.
"Did you say the passengers landed the airplane?" the American Airlines pilot asked. "Oh, my God. Great job," he said.
Two people were aboard the single-engine Cessna 208 when the pilot fell unconscious. The condition of the pilot wasn't immediately known, but the FAA is investigating the incident.
Read more at CNN