Untrained passenger lands plane after pilot falls ill | Las Vegas Review-Journal LONDON A passenger with no flying experience safely landed a small airplane at a British airport after the pilot became incapacitated, officials said Wednesday. The pilot, the only other person aboard the aircraft, died soon after the plane came to a stop. The cause of death was not immediately known. The plane issued a mayday call as it returned to the Sandtoft airfield in northeast England on Tuesday evening. Officials at Humberside Airport, near the airfield, put emergency plans into place and successfully helped the passenger land the plane. The passenger flew over the airport a couple of times and then was talked down by two flight instructors, and the emergency services were waiting for them when he landed safely, the airport said in a statement.
You only hear about the success stories in these circumstances. He was lucky - this does not always work out.
Wow, that is like a Hollywood movie plot. Great that the non-pilot could pull-off landing the plane. I wish they made a recording of the radio transmissions back & forth on that approach. .
It looks like he landed at night also. The emergency was declared starting at 6:20 pm. Here is a pic of the plane after it landed. Looks like it might be a Cessna 172. . Image Unavailable, Please Login
I would think that this would be successful if the instructors were feeding the pilot with knowledgable and easily understood assistance. Looks like a marvelous conclusion to what could have been a bad scenario. The passenger appears to have been pretty level headed to boot.
