Cycling UK Forum

Untrained passenger lands Florida plane after pilot falls ill

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-61416384

For anybody wanting a bit of good news this is some.

The juxtaposition of two people able to stay calm and coherent in an emergency.

Good example of keeping your cool, for someone with no flying experience it was a great outcome. In his favour the Cessna 208 Caravan is a very forgiving aircraft I occasionally flew one for a skydiving club.

"... with no flying experience... "

We'll see.

Jonathan

Yes, I heard the report on R4 Today Prog this morning.
At the end of it all, there was a comment that he knew "stuff" anyway.
How did he know how to operate the radio for instance, or know what a transponder was?
The reporter on R4 picked up on this.

Mick F wrote: ↑12 May 2022, 2:41pm Yes, I heard the report on R4 Today Prog this morning.
At the end of it all, there was a comment that he knew "stuff" anyway.
How did he know how to operate the radio for instance, or know what a transponder was?
The reporter on R4 picked up on this.

Probably the pilot had already set the transponder before he fell ill? And my guess about the radio is that he simply used the pilot's headset & the settings the pilot used on the radio.

There was also another passenger. One person could look stuff up in the aircraft flight manual while the other one flew. The controls in a small plane are relatively simple to use, if all you are doing is keeping a plane aloft.

There are, of course, other possibilities: some exposure to flying through a family member or military service, for example, could be useful even if he had never flown a plane before.

I *think* I could do the same in similar circumstances. My dad used to hold a pilot's licence & took me flying sometimes when I was in my 20s & 30s. I have controlled a plane in the air before, but never taken off, landed, nor had any formal instruction.

The choices seem to be that either this is a stunt, or that two imo quite remarkable people have remained calm - particularly admirable for the person up in the air - and achieved a remarkable feat of collaboration. I've done my share of radio controlling and it's not easy when everybody is supposedly trained and on terra firma.

Vorpal wrote: ↑12 May 2022, 3:15pmThere are, of course, other possibilities: some exposure to flying through a family member or military service, for example, could be useful even if he had never flown a plane before.

Yes. Or in that same plane...

I suspect previous experience but no formal training or registration.

We'll see.

Jonathan

Vorpal, you are no doubt correct in what you say, but unless you have some idea or some sort of technical info or experience, you have nothing.

Sea Story Alert!
Many years ago, we borrowed a small fishing boat owned by the RN naval base named Pelican.
Me and the family went down to Devonport and got ourselves sorted for a trip into Plymouth Sound and a trip up the river.
I'm no seaman despite many years in the RN. I'm a tech electronics/radar person, but at least I had a background in boat handling, though never actually done it.

I got the engine going and everything, but I knew - though never done it personally before - to get in touch with Queen's Harbourmaster in Longroom. I spoke to Mrs Mick F (who doesn't have a technical bone in her body) and recited what she should say on the radio. I knew how to switch it on and to change to Channel 16.

She said as per my instructions, "Longroom, Longroom, this is Pelican, Pelican, radio check, radio check, over."
Longromm replied with, "This is Longroom, receiving you loud and clear, over."

What I didn't instruct her with was what to say afterwards!
She said in her very girly way, "Thank you".

I believe the guy was an air traffic controller, so that would give him some idea.

Al

I wanted to call our boat 'Hello Hello' so when radioing the coastguard we could say

Hello Hello, listen very carefully I shall say zis only once...

Al

I once had a guy who had never actually flown an aircraft but had learnt on a computer programme, come into the flying school and want to test his skills on a real aircraft. I went up with him in a Cessna 152 and he took off and flew straight and level but couldn't cope with turbulence. If I'd have let me continue with his approach and landing we would both now be pushing up daisies.

Most of the process is computer controlled on modern aircraft. Stay calm, let the GPS do it’s job. I wouldn’t want to be in that situation, but trying to make out that the landing was in some way a miracle is pure media hype. Well done to the guys involved, it was a nasty situation, but no great shakes, in reality.

al_yrpal wrote: ↑12 May 2022, 4:24pmI believe the guy was an air traffic controller, so that would give him some idea.

No, he was a VP at an interior design company.

I don't think a 208 is a computer controlled aircraft. The one I flew definately wasn't.

bikepacker wrote: ↑12 May 2022, 6:33pm I don't think a 208 is a computer controlled aircraft. The one I flew definately wasn't.

If it had this upgraded avionics package

https://www.banyanair.com/caravan-208-avionics-upgrade/

Landing it would have been like shelling peas ( with a blindfold on admittedly). I still wouldn’t have fancied it though.