Passenger With No Flying Experience Lands Plane After Pilot Falls Unconscious
- A passenger with no flying experience safely landed a private plane in a Florida airport on Tuesday afternoon
- In a video making rounds on social media, he can be heard telling air traffic control that he doesn’t know how to fly the plane
- The Cessna 208 Caravan was flying from the Bahamas to Florida on Tuesday when the pilot fell unconscious
A passenger with no flying experience safely landed a private plane in a Florida airport on Tuesday afternoon, May 10 after the pilot fell ill.
The passenger was flying in the Cessna 208 Caravan from the Bahamas to Florida when the drama begun.
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This is brand new video (courtesy of Jeff Chandler) of a passenger landing a plane today at PBIA.
— Ari Hait (@wpbf_ari) May 11, 2022
His pilot had passed out, and the passenger with zero flight experience was forced to land the plane.
Team coverage of this amazing landing is on @WPBF25News at 11. pic.twitter.com/jFLIlTp6Zs
In avideo obtained by LiveATC.net audio CNN, the passenger can be heard telling air traffic control that he doesn’t know how to fly the plane.
“I’ve got a serious situation here. My pilot has gone incoherent, and I have no idea how to fly the airplane,” said the man.
Passenger Lands Plane
Then an air traffic controller began providing the man with instructions on landing the plane.
According to the audio the plane eventually touched down in Palm Beach International Airport in Florida.
“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,” added the controller.
In additional audio captured by LiveATC.net, another air traffic controller can be heard telling other planes what had unfolded.
“You just witnessed a couple of passengers land that plane,” the tower operator can be heard telling an American Airlines pilot waiting to take off for Charlotte, North Carolina.
“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 had a “possible medical issue,” the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. The condition of the pilot was not immediately known.
