Passenger Lands Plane After Pilot Incapacitation

[PHXPhlyer]

Passenger with 'no idea' how to fly plane lands aircraft in Florida after pilot has medical emergency

Website has video of landing.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pa ... -rcna28267

A passenger with no apparent flying experience managed to land a small plane in Florida on Tuesday after their pilot became “incoherent” following a medical emergency.

The single-engine Cessna 208 landed successfully at the Palm Beach International Airport around 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, NBC affiliate WPTV of West Palm Beach reported.

The flight had departed from Marsh Harbour, Bahamas, about an hour and a half before the miracle landing, according to FlightAware data.

In live audio from a call made to air traffic control at Fort Pierce tower, the unidentified passenger can be heard warning: “I’ve got a serious situation here.”

“My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane,” they say.

“Roger. What’s your position?” a dispatcher responds.

“I have no idea,” the passenger says. “I can see the coast of Florida in front of me. And I have no idea.”

The dispatcher can be heard telling the passenger to "maintain wings level" and to "just try to follow the coast, either north or southbound" as crews tried to locate the plane.

Ultimately, the controller was able to walk the passenger through the steps to land the plane.

"Man, they did a great job," someone can be heard saying in a separate call log from the air traffic control station.

"Did you say the passengers landed the plane?" another person asks. "Oh my God. Great job."

The first person can be heard saying that the passenger had "no flying experience" before landing the plane. They said a controller who was also a flying instructor had helped them land the aircraft.

Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office officials said that one person had been taken to hospital in connection with the incident, according to WPTV. They did not release information on the individual's condition or identity, the news station reported. NBC News has contacted the sheriff's office for further comment.

The plane is registered to Beach Amphibian LLC based in Connecticut, Federal Aviation Administration data shows.

The FAA is investigating the incident.

PP

[PHXPhlyer]

Virtual flight instruction.
I'm all for it.
Mount a few cameras and instruct from the comfort of your easy chair.
No driving to the airport, being crammed into a Spam can, no dealing with students who ate something smelly for lunch, or dealing with said lunch coming back up.
Many positive aspects to this set-up.
Sign me up!

PP

[Opsboi]

Great story, from The Times today

Passenger with ‘no idea how to fly’ lands plane after his pilot falls ill
A lone passenger aboard a light aircraft flying over the Atlantic took the controls and landed safely in Florida after his pilot was suddenly taken ill.
Darren Harrison, a complete novice, was talked through his approach, descent and landing by an air traffic controller after putting in a distress call to say: “I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”
He told the controller, Robert Morgan: “I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent.”
The drama unfolded on Tuesday as the pilot flew Harrison west across the Atlantic towards the US coast from Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas.
Morgan, who had swapped shifts with a colleague to be on duty at Palm Beach airport’s control tower that day, was on his lunch break reading a book outdoors when another worker came running to him.
“There’s a passenger flying a plane that’s not a pilot,” his colleague yelled. “You need to help them try and land the plane.”
Another controller at Fort Pierce had taken Harrison’s radio call for help and asked him: “What’s your position?” He replied: “I have no idea. I see the coast of Florida in front of me and I have no idea.”
The controller asked him about “the situation with the pilot” and he said: “He is incoherent. He is out.”
Over the next few minutes, air traffic control told Harrison how to keep the Cessna 208 Caravan, a single-engine, nine-seat turboprop, stable and begin reducing altitude.
“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 . . . just try to follow the coast either north or southbound. We’re trying to locate you,” Harrison was told.
Showing remarkable calmness, he replied: “Have you guys located me yet? I can’t even get my nav screen to turn on. It has all the information on it. You guys have any ideas on that?”
Later Harrison said: “Yeah . . . descending right now at 550ft a minute.”
Down the coast in Palm Beach, Morgan, a controller for 20 years and a commercial pilot with 1,200 flying hours, was ready to take over. Being unfamiliar with the Cessna, he pulled up a photograph of its cockpit and flight controls on his mobile phone.
Meanwhile the team at Fort Pierce located the aircraft on radar passing the town of Boca Raton, instructed Harrison to keep descending to 5,000ft and turn northbound, and put him in touch with Morgan. “Palm Beach approach is gonna talk to you. They’re going to direct you to Palm Beach airport,” they told him.
Morgan told WPBF 25 News: “I knew the plane was flying like any other plane. I just knew I had to keep him calm, point him to the runway and tell him how to reduce the power so he could descend to land.”
A video recording shows the aircraft coming in for a smooth landing as emergency vehicles stand by.
“Before I knew it, he said, ‘I’m on the ground. How do I turn this thing off?’ ” Morgan said.
The pilot was taken to hospital. There was no word on his condition yesterday and his identity was not released by the local authorities.
Morgan rushed to meet Harrison and embrace him. “He told me he couldn’t wait to get home and hug his pregnant wife,” the controller said. “It felt really good to help somebody.”
A recording of air traffic control audio captured another air traffic controller telling the pilot of an American Airlines flight the good news. “Did you say the passenger’s landed the airplane?” exclaimed the AA pilot. “Oh my God. Great job.”

[G-CPTN]

Alexa, "land the aircraft . . . "

[ribrash]

I always keep my ratings up to date with MS Fltsim.

[barkingmad]

I am sceptical about this story for some reason, it just doesn’t ring true.

But the idea of remote flight instruction certainly has it’s advantages, although perhaps Da Management would withhold Flying Duty Pay if one doesn’t get one’s arse off the ground...

[1DC]

This happened at Humberside a few years ago when the pilot passed out and the passenger landed the aircraft after being talked down by an instructor from the control tower. Around about ten years ago I reckon.

[Ex-Ascot]

I am sceptical about this story for some reason, it just doesn’t ring true.

Me too. I have got enough hours RHS on this aircraft to know that it is a fairly complex aircraft.

[Boac]

I may have missed it, but have we had the all-important METAR?

[1DC]

In the Humberside case it was October 9th 2013 sorry to say the pilot did not survive. Plenty of media coverage if you want to look for it.

[Ex-Ascot]

In the Humberside case it was October 9th 2013 sorry to say the pilot did not survive. Plenty of media coverage if you want to look for it.

Had a look at that 1DC. Do we know aircraft type.

[1DC]

Ex A.. At the time it was G-HIVE a Cessna, possibly a 172 but I cannot find G-HIVE now..

[G-CPTN]

Aircraft details for: G-HIVE
Information as at: 11-May-2022 20:41

Return to search results Search again
Previous
Showing item 1 of 1
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Registration details
Mark:
G-HIVE
Current reg. date:
24-Jan-2018
Previous ID:
De-reg. date:
Status:
Registered
To:
View registration history
Aircraft details
Manufacturer:
REIMS AVIATION SA
Type:
REIMS CESSNA F150M
Serial no.:
1186
ICAO 24 bit aircraft address:
Binary: 0100_0000_0001_1011_1011_1010

Hex: 401BBA

Octal: 20015672

ICAO aircraft type designator:
C150
Popular name:
-
Aircraft class:
FIXED-WING LANDPLANE
Airworthiness category:
CS-23B : Utility Category Aeroplane
Engines (Propellers):
1:

1 x CONTINENTAL MOTORS CORP O-200-A ( MCCAULEY 1A102/OCM6948 )

MTOW:
726 kg
Total hours:
13077 at 09-Jan-2019
Year built:
1975
Approved maint. programme:
None
CofA / permit:
CAA Certificate of Airworthiness
ARC expiry:
03-Mar-2022
Validity reference:
G-HIVE/329837K/04032021
Registered owner details
Ownership status:
Owned
Registered owners:
PETERBOROUGH FLYING SCHOOL LTD
SIBSON AIRFIELD
SIBSON
PETERBOROUGH
PE8 6NE

[Ex-Ascot]

Yes, in other words a very simple aircraft to fly. Still an achievement though.

[PHXPhlyer]

I have a few thousand hours in Caravans.
Flies like a big 172. Very stable.
I can believe the story. He did say that while he had never piloted an aircraft himself, he said that he had been a passenger in small planes quite a lot.

PP

[Karearea]

Air Traffic Controller Speaks Out After Helping Passenger Land Plane [4:11]

[PHXPhlyer]

Pilot who passed out reunites with passenger who landed plane with no flying experience
Pilot Ken Allen and passenger Darren Harrison shared a hug as they marveled at the "miracle" that they both survived a harrowing ordeal in Florida last year.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pi ... rcna122515

In a surprise reunion on NBC's "TODAY" show, a passenger with no flying experience who landed a nose-diving plane and the pilot whose life he helped save shared a heartfelt hug more than a year in the making.

“We are connected for life,” pilot Ken Allen said to Savannah Guthrie in an exclusive interview.

“Occasionally I’ll have flashbacks about it, but just most importantly, how everything worked out and just it all came together,” passenger Darren Harrison said. “It was just a miracle in itself.”

During a flight over Florida in May 2022, Allen fell unconscious behind the controls of his single-engine Cessna 208 plane. He had suffered an aortic dissection, an often fatal tear that occurs in the inner layer of the body’s main artery.

Harrison reached over the incapacitated Allen to grab the controls of a nose-diving plane that was 12,000 feet in the air.

“By the time I had moved forward to the front of the airplane, I realized that we had now gone into a dive at a very fast rate,” Harrison told Savannah last year. “And at that point, I knew if I didn’t react, that we would die.”

With the help of air-traffic controller Robert Morgan, Harrison safely landed the plane at Palm Beach International Airport with Allen and another passenger onboard. Allen was rushed to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center, where he underwent a nine-hour, lifesaving surgery by Dr. Nishant Patel.

The surgery was so serious that Patel left a voicemail for Allen’s wife saying he had a 50-50 chance at survival.

Allen’s recovery has been so remarkable that he has been cleared for the Federal Aviation Administration to fly again, 17 months after the ordeal.

“I feel great. I feel like my old self,” he said. “It’s incredible. I really didn’t think I was going to be able to, but I don’t give up easily, so I had to see it through.”

Since that harrowing day, Harrison has welcomed a daughter who is now 14 months old. His wife was seven months pregnant at the time of the emergency landing.

While Allen has expressed his gratitude for Harrison’s heroic actions, he also has been experiencing another emotion.


TODAY exclusive: Passenger-turned-pilot details miracle landing
MAY 16, 202210:06

https://www.today.com/video/today-exclu ... 0085317737

“I had so much guilt ... that I endangered their lives,” Allen said. “I mean the first thing besides crying was apologizing to him and Russ. I felt so bad.”

“I had to grab him by the shoulders and say, ‘Stop. No more,’” Harrison said.

Aortic dissections often occur without any warning, so there was nothing Allen could’ve done, according to Patel.

“Most patients who have this problem have no clue that something like this can happen,” Patel said on TODAY.

In celebration of his return to the skies, Allen recently took Patel for a flight over Florida to show his gratitude. Meanwhile, Harrison has no hesitation about getting on a plane with Allen again.

“He’s flying my wife next weekend to Charleston,” Harrison said.

PP