Pilot down, passenger with ‘no idea how to fly’ takes over and lands US plane
- The distraught passenger said the pilot was ‘incoherent’, and added that he had no idea where they were
- Responding to his plea for help, air traffic controllers helped guide the tiny Cessna 208 to touch down safely at an airport in Florida
A passenger in a small plane off Florida’s Atlantic coast used the cockpit radio to make an urgent plea for help after he realised that the pilot was too sick to handle the controls.
“I’ve got a serious situation here,” the man said on Tuesday. “My pilot has gone incoherent. I have no idea how to fly the airplane.”
An air traffic controller in Fort Pierce responded, asking if he knew the position of the single-engine Cessna 208.
“I have no idea. I can see the coast of Florida in front of me, and I have no idea,” he said.
Twin controls enable a Cessna 208 to be steered from the passenger seat. Speaking very calmly, the controller told him to “maintain wings level and try to follow the coast, either north or southbound”.
Minutes passed before controllers were able to locate the plane, which by then was heading north over Boca Raton. Then the man’s voice seemed to fade, so the controller in Fort Pierce asked for his mobile phone number to enable controllers at Palm Beach International Airport to communicate with him more clearly.