Passenger Landed Plane Safely After Pilot Died Mid-Flight

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on April 14, 2009 at 4:32 pm


When the pilot of the twin-engine Beech aircraft passed out and died mid-flight, passenger Doug White of Archibald, Louisiana, took over the plane and landed it safely:

"We’ve had situations where passengers land airplanes before, but this is the first time I actually heard a controller actually tell the passenger to push this button and turn this knob," said Steve Wallace, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers in Miami. "It’s a heck of an Easter story."

Wallace was working in the Miami air traffic control center when his air controllers couldn’t reach the plane’s pilot at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Miami center deals with planes at high altitude – 10,000 or more feet – in South Florida.

"We tried a couple times and didn’t hear anything," Wallace said. "Then all of a sudden, we hear a passenger say, ‘This is November 55 Niner Delta Whisky and my pilot is passed out. We need help now.’"

LinkThanks Sharyn!


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11 comments to "Passenger Landed Plane Safely After Pilot Died Mid-Flight"

  1. Oomi
    April 14th, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    Lucky. Although, he already had flight experience.

  2. craig
    April 14th, 2009 at 5:26 pm

    I have no idea why this continues to make big news. It's like a person who knows how to drive a car taking over driving a Greyhound bus if the driver conked out. He was a pilot already. My qualification for the comment is that I'm a 20 year pilot with experience in lots of airplanes. Guy did a good job, but the real news would have been if he had crashed - what was all that training for?!

  3. DOJ
    April 14th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

    I mean come on. He knew to say "Niner"?

  4. G.i. Joe
    April 14th, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    Not only that DOJ, he said "Whisky" and that is Golden!!

  5. DaveL
    April 14th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

    I like playing flight sims and have daydreamed about saving the day like this. Imagine the headlines... "Computer Gamer Saves Flight!"... *sigh*

  6. matty
    April 15th, 2009 at 1:53 am

    he was a pilot any way. so he know how to fly. but not this plane.

  7. Skipweasel
    April 15th, 2009 at 5:18 am

    What a good job they didn't have a lockable cabin door - as required on most commercial planes.

  8. romreader
    April 15th, 2009 at 7:00 am

    Just because I know how to drive a car doesn't mean that I would be able to suddenly take over a semi-truck and drive it down the highway.

  9. Scotchdrnkr
    April 15th, 2009 at 7:25 am

    The propeller is just a big fan in the front of the plane to keep the pilot cool.
    Want proof?
    Make it stop; then watch the pilot break out into a sweat.

  10. PeteRepeat42
    April 15th, 2009 at 8:42 am

    Didn't I read this in Hatchet? Only now he has to live for a few months in the Canadian forest.

  11. Gauldar
    April 15th, 2009 at 9:48 am

    @DaveL

    You should know that would never actualy happen. On the other hand, if you had crashed it would be all over the news with "Computer Gamer Crashes Aircraft".


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