Some heroes don’t wear capes. After the captain became ill on board, a passenger on a private plane managed to land the plane at a Florida airport despite having no prior flying expertise. On Tuesday, the extraordinary situation occurred when the passenger was recorded telling air traffic control that he had “no concept” of how to operate the airplane.
“I’ve got a serious situation here,” the unidentified passenger said in the LiveATC.net audio, according to reports. “My pilot has gone incoherent, and I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”
“Roger. What’s your position?” air traffic control replied.
“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,” control added. “Try to follow the coast, either north or southbound. We’re trying to locate you.”
The plane, which was carrying two passengers in addition to the pilot, was flying at a height of 9,100 feet near southern Florida when air traffic authorities in Fort Pierce directed it to follow the coastline and land at Palm Beach International Airport.
The private plane was discovered on radar four minutes after the passenger phoned air traffic control.
The passenger-turned-pilot asked the controllers how to switch on the plane’s navigation screen while they were locating the plane, which was a Cessna Caravan, according to accounts.
The good thing about the passenger was that he didn’t panic. He listened to each and every instruction carefully and calmly.
“Have you guys located me yet?” he asked. “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?”
“You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane,” the air traffic controller could be heard telling an American Airlines pilot getting ready to fly to Charlotte, North Carolina.
“Did you say the passengers landed the plane?” the pilot asked. “Oh, my God. Great job.”
The plane landed, and emergency personnel arrived to assist the pilot, according to the video acquired. The identities of people on board were not revealed.
“This is the first time I’ve ever heard of one of these being landed by somebody that has no aeronautical experience,” aviation expert John Nance said on Tuesday.
“The person on the airplane who had no aeronautical experience listened very carefully and obviously followed instructions with great calm,” he said. “That’s what made the difference.”
The Federal Aviation Administration said that the pilot suffered a “possible medical issue”. The agency is still looking into the incident.
Source: dailymail.co.uk
