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HARRISON: "I've got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the aeroplane."
CONTROL: "ATC: 333 Lima Delta, Roger, what's your position?"
HARRISON: "I have no idea. I can see the coast of Florida in front of me but I have no idea."
CONTROL: "Maintain wings level and just try to follow the coast, either northbound or southbound. We're trying to locate you."
On 10 May at 10,000 feet above the ocean a Cessna 208 Caravan pilot suffers aortic dissection and collapses. The other two people on board are passengers without piloting experience -- Russ Franck, 69, and Darren Harrison, 39. The plane goes into a dive. Harrison takes control, slowly levels the aircraft, establishes radio communication and gets assistance from ground controller Robert Morgan, a seasoned Cessna flight instructor. One hour later, after what Franck describes as "a normal landing", the pilot Kenneth Allen, 64, is rushed to Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center where his life is saved for second time that day.
The story:
• May 11 https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/passenger-safely-lands-aircraft-after-pilot-incapacitated/
• May 11 https://medium.com/faa/miracle-in-the-air-air-traffic-controllers-guide-passenger-to-land-plane-safely-27362004f07c
• May 12 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61416384
• May 12 https://people.com/human-interest/air-traffic-controller-speaks-out-after-helping-passenger-land-plane/
• May 16 https://people.com/human-interest/passenger-who-landed-airplane-with-no-flying-experience-speaks-out/
• May 17 https://people.com/human-interest/pilot-has-miraculous-recovery-after-health-emergency-led-to-passenger-landing-plane/
• May 26 https://people.com/human-interest/pilot-who-had-medical-emergency-speaks-out-after-passenger-landed-plane/
--
Ever wanted to know how to fly an airplane just in case?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by inertnet on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:24AM (14 children)
I'm pretty sure that I could land an airplane, with the kind of help that he had. I have no experience at all, apart from using flight simulators. But I don't panic easily and understand the basics and I would definitely take control in the same situation. Given enough time to get to know the craft, I believe I would be able to land it too.
(Score: 5, Informative) by RamiK on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:49AM
The control tower did a great job at setting them up with forgiving landing conditions:
( https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61416384 [bbc.com] )
( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Beach_International_Airport [wikipedia.org] )
( https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/article/cessna-208-caravan/ [planeandpilotmag.com] )
compiling...
(Score: 5, Informative) by choose another one on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:51AM
The landing wasn't necessarily the hardest part, before even getting on the radio to get any help he had to pull out of a (powered) dive, overspeed (I think, pretty sure) and risking both stall and ripping the wings off. Nerves of steel and fair bit of aviation background knowledge required. The guy down the back had this, the passenger sat next to the pilot either didn't, or froze, either way it seems he didn't touch the controls (which may have been very lucky if he didn't know).
Some good aviation/technical videos out on this already:
Mentour Pilot (for me) always strikes a good balance explaining technical details to the vaguely knowledgeable non-pilot (like me): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-W2cnnLSTM [youtube.com]
Juan Browne ('Blancolirio') has an interview with the ATC / FI which is mostly just the ATC telling the story from his POV without interruption: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rad24e17_D8 [youtube.com]
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @10:06AM (4 children)
I, on the other hand, would fail miserably, probably consoling myself with the fact that at least death would be quick.
as a european, I recently contemplated the perspective of joining the army in case putin attacks our country as well.
I realized I would most likely piss myself, then accidentally shoot my friends and stab myself in something after tripping on my own feet.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Wednesday June 01 2022, @10:31AM (3 children)
I believe that most people can find something that they're good at, it just looks like you haven't found yours yet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @11:07AM
GP is obviously great for joining the army, on the opposing side.
back to the story, the question for people undergoing sudden strokes is now "how many doses?".
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:45PM (1 child)
thank you for phrasing it that way.
for what it's worth, I have a job and a family, and we're doing ok.
and on a serious note, I never want to find out what I'd do in a life or death situation.
as far as I know, either you seriously train for it, or your reaction is completely unpredictable (and even if you train, you may fail).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:16PM
You nailed it: "training". None of us can know what our reaction will be in an unfamiliar and stressful situation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:02PM
There's supposedly an app for that:
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/xavion-new-app-can-safely-emergency-land-airplanes [thrillist.com]
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/xavion/id574203838 [apple.com]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday June 01 2022, @02:16PM (3 children)
I mean, the choices were, #1 crash and die or #2 try to do something about it. The "good" option there, is literally flying by the seat of your pants.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday June 01 2022, @05:27PM (2 children)
However, option #1 has a nice neat known outcome in the worst case. Option #2 has a lot of unknowns and uncertainty about the outcome.
Optimize for eliminating uncertainty and reproducibility.
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday June 01 2022, @06:59PM (1 child)
Nice! Where did you get your MBA at?
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 4, Touché) by DannyB on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:16PM
self taut
Young people won't believe you if you say you used to get Netflix by US Postal Mail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:21AM
I used to be somewhat capable flying on a simulator program when I was a kid. Now when I play again, I end up in a stall without enough altitude or throttle response to save it.
I’ve been thinking about taking flight instruction to learn the skills.
(Score: 2) by bart9h on Friday June 03 2022, @03:18PM
I too have that feeling, but I know that I could OR could not do it. You can't predict your reaction in a situation like this.